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THE BEAR - FIGHT. 






/ 

Library of Travel and Adventure. 


AWAY 

1/ 

IN THE WILDERNESS; 

OK, 

LIFE AMONG THE RED INDIANS 

AND 

FUR-TRADERS OF NORTH AMERICA. 


WITH FOUR COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS. 


NEW YORK : 

D. APPLETON & CO., 443 & 445 BROADWAY. 
1865. 




PUBLISHERS’ ADVERTISEMENT. 


This series of volumes is intended to con- 
vey to the youthful reader valuable informa- 
tion, clothed in the attractive form of tales. 
This form is chosen, as sure to enlist the atten- 
tion of the young, and affording an opportunity 
to impress upon their minds those features of 
character which are worthy of admiration, or 
which should be condemned. Each volume is 
complete and distinct in itself; but together 
they contain a fulness and variety of interesting 
knowledge not to be found elsewhere in the 
same compass. 




















CONTENTS. 


Chap. I. — The Hunter, .... 

“ II. — The Three Friends, 

“ III. — The Encampment, 

M IV. — Mosquitoes — Camp-Fire Talk, 

“ V. — Journeying in the Wilderness, . 

“ YI. — The Outpost, .... 

“ VII. — A Savage Family, and a Fight 
with a Bear, .... 

“ YIII. — Running the Falls — Wild Scenes 
and Men, 

“ IX. — The Fort, and an Unexpected 
Meeting, 

“ X. — Buffalo-Hunting on the Prairies 

“ XI. — Winter — Sleeping in the Snow — 
A Night Alarm, 

u XII. — The Wedding, an Arrival, a 
Feast, and a Ball, . 

“ XIII. — The Conclusion, .... 


PAGE 

9 

15 

24 

34 

42 

56 

74 

87 

106 

120 

135 

152 

165 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 


The Beak-Fight — ( Frontispiece ), 
Making a Postage, . 

Running the Falls, . 

The Snow-Shoe Joukney, . 


PAGE 

. 84 
. 54 
. 92 


143 



AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


CHAPTER L 

THE HUNTE R. 

On a beautiful summer evening, not 
many years ago, a man was seen to ascend 
the side of a little mound or hillock, on the 
top of which he lingered to gaze upon the 
wild scenery that lay stretched out before 
him. 

The man wore the leathern coat and 
leggings of a North American hunter, or trap- 
per, or backwoodsman ; and well did he 
deserve all these titles, for Jasper Derry was 
known to his friends as the best hunter, the 


10 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


most successful trapper, and the boldest man 
in the backwoods. 

Jasper was big and strong as well as bold, 
but he was not a bully. Men of true cour- 
age are in general peacefully disposed. 
J asper could fight like a lion when there was 
occasion to do so ; but he was gentle and grave, 
and quiet by nature. He was also extreme- 
ly good-humoured ; had a low soft voice, and, 
both in mind and body, seemed to delight in 
a state of repose. 

We have said that his coat was made of 
leather; the moccasins or Indian shoes on his 
feet were made of the same material. When 
Jasper first put them on they were soft like a 
glove of chamois leather, and bright yellow ; 
but hard service had turned them into a 
dirty brown, which looked more business- 
like. The sun had burned his face and 
hands to as deep a brown as his coat. On 
his head he wore a little round cap, which 
he had made with his own hands, after hav- 
ing caught the black fox that supplied the 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


11 


fur, in one of Ms own traps. A coloured 
worsted belt bound bis coat round his waist, 
and beneath the coat he wore a scarlet flan- 
nel shirt. A long knife and a small hatchet 
were stuck in the belt at his back, and in 
front hung a small cloth bag, which was so 
thickly ornamented with beads of many col- 
ours, that little of the cloth could be seen. 

This last was a fire-bag — so called because 
it contained the flint, steel, and tinder re- 
quired for making a fire. It also contained 
Jasper’s pipe and tobacco — for he smoked, as 
a matter of course. Men smoke everywhere 
— more’s the pity — and Jasper followed the 
example of those around him. Smoking was 
almost his only fault. He was a tremendous 
smoker. Often, when out of tobacco, he had 
smoked tea. Frequently he had tried bark 
and dried leaves ; and once, when hard press- 
ed, he had smoked oakum. He would rather 
have gone without his supper than without 
his pipe! A powder-horn and shot-pouch 
were slung over his shoulders by two cross 


12 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


belts, and be carried a long single-barrelled 
gnn. 

I have been thus particular in describing 
Jasper Derry, because be is our bero, and be 
is worth describing, being a fine, hearty, 
handsome fellow, who cared as little for a 
wild Indian or a grizzly bear as be did 
for a butterfly, and who was one of the 
best companions, as he was one of the best 
of hunters, in the wilderness. 

Having gained the top of the hillock, Jas- 
per placed the butt of his long gun on the 
ground, and crossing his hands over the muz- 
zle stood there for some time so motionless, 
that he might have been mistaken for a statue. 
A magnificent country was spread out be- 
fore him. Just in front lay a clear lake of 
about a mile in extent, and the evening was 
so still that every tree, stone, and bush on 
its margin, was reflected as in a mirror. 
Here, hundreds of wild ducks and wild geese 
were feeding among the sedges of the bays, 
or flying to and fro mingling their cries with 


AWAY m THE WILDERNESS. 


13 


those of thousands of plover and other kinds 
of waterfowl that inhabited the place. At 
the lower end of this lake a small rivulet 
was seen to issue forth and wind its way 
through woods and plains like a silver thread, 
until it was lost to view in the far dis- 
tance. On the right and left and behind, 
the earth was covered with the dense foli- 
age of the wild-woods. 

The hillock on which the western hunter 
stood, lay in the very heart of that great un- 
cultivated wilderness which forms part of the 
British possessions in North America. This 
region lies to the north of the Canadas, is nearly 
as large as all Europe, and goes by the name 
of the Hudson’s Bay Territory, or Rupert’s 
Land. 

It had taken Jasper many long weeks 
of hard travel by land and water, in 
canoes and on foot, to get there; and sev- 
eral weeks of toil still lay before him ere he 
could attain the object for which his journey 
had been undertaken. 

2 


14 AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 

Wicked people say that “woman is at 
the bottom of all mischief!” Did it never 
occur to these same wicked individuals, that 
woman is just as much at the bottom of all 
good? Whether for good or evil, woman 
was at the bottom of Jasper Derry’s heart 
and affairs. The cause of his journey was 
love ; the aim and the end of it was marriage ! 
Did true love ever run smooth ? “ No, never,” 
says the proverb. We shall see. 


CHAPTER H. 


THE THREE FRIENDS. 

When the hunter had stood for full five 
minutes gazing at the beautiful scenery by 
which he was surrounded, it suddenly occur- 
red to him that a pipe would render him 
much more capable of enjoying it ; so he sat 
down on the trunk of a fallen tree, leaned his 
gun on it, pulled the fire-bag from his belt, 
and began to fill his pipe, which was one of 
the kind used by the savages of the country, 
with a stone head and a wooden stem. It 
was soon lighted, and Jasper was thinking 
how much more clear and beautiful a land- 
scape looked through tobacco smoke, when 
a hand was laid lightly on his shoulder. 


16 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


Looking quickly round, he beheld a tall, 
dark-faced Indian standing by his side. 

Jasper betrayed neither alarm nor sur- 
prise; for the youth was his own comrade, 
who had merely come to tell him that the 
canoe in which they had been travelling 
together, and which had been slightly dam- 
aged, was repaired and ready for service. 

“ Why, Arrowhead, you steal on me with 
the soft tread of a fox. My ears are not 
dull, yet I did not hear your approach, lad.” 

A smile lighted up the countenance of the 
young Indian for a moment, as he listened 
to a compliment which gratified him much ; 
but the grave expression which was natural 
to him instantly returned, as he said, “ Arrow- 
head has hunted in the Rocky Mountains 
where the men are treacherous ; he has learn- 
ed to tread lightly there.” 

“ Ho doubt, ye had need to be always on 
the look out, where there are such varmints ; 
but hereaway, Arrowhead, there are no foes 
to fear, and therefore no need to take yer 


AWAY IN THE WILDEKNESS. 


17 


friends by surprise. But ye’re proud o’ your 
gifts, lad, an’ I suppose it’s natural to like to 
sbow them off. Is the canoe ready ? ” 

The Indian replied by a nod. 

“ That’s well, lad, it will be sun-down in 
another hour, an’ I would like to camp on the 
point of the pines to night ; so come along.” 

“ Hist ! ” exclaimed the Indian, pointing to 
a flock of geese which came into view at that 
moment. 

“Ah ! you come of a wasterful race,” said 
Jasper, shaking his head gravely, “you’re 
never content when ye’ve got enough, but 
must always be killing God’s creatures right 
and left for pure sport. Haven’t we got one 
gray goose already for supper, an’ that’s 
enough for two men surely. Of course I 
make no account o’ the artist, poor cratur’, 
for he eats next to nothin’. Hows’ever, as 
your appetite may be sharper set than usual, 
I’ve no objection to bring down another for 
ye.” 

So saying the hunter and the Indian crouch- 
2 * 


18 


AWAY m THE WILDERNESS. 


ed behind a bush, and the former, while he cock - 
ed his gun and examined the priming, gave 
utterance to a series of cries so loud and dis- 
cordant, that any one who was ignorant of a 
hunter’s ways must have thought he was 
anxious to drive all the living creatures with- 
in six miles of him away in terror. Jasper 
had no such wish, however. He was merely 
imitating the cry of the wild geese. The 
birds, which were at first so far off that a 
rifle-ball could not have reached them, no 
sooner heard the cry of their friends (as they 
doubtless thought it), than they turned out of 
their course, and came gradually towards the 
bush where the two men lay hidden. 

The hunter did not cease to cry until the 
birds were within gun-shot. Then he fixed 
his eye on one of the flock that seemed plump 
and fat. The long barrel of the gun was 
quickly raised, the geese discovered their 
mistake, and the whole flock were thrown 
into wild confusion as they attempted to 
sheer off; but it was too late. Smoke and 


AWAY IN THE WILDEKNESS. 


19 


fire burst from the bush, and an enormous 
gray goose fell with a heavy crash to the 
ground. 

“What have you shot? what have you 
shot ? ” cried a shrill and somewhat weak 
voice in the distance. In another moment 
the owner of the voice appeared, running 
eagerly towards the two men. 

“ Use your eyes, John Heywood, an’ ye 
won’t need to ask,” said Jasper, with a quiet 
smile, as he carefully reloaded his gun. 

“ Ah ! I see — a gray swan — no, surely, it 
cannot be a goose ? ” said Heywood, turning 
the bird over and regarding it with astonish- 
ment ; “ why, this is the biggest one I ever 
did see.” 

“ What’s yon in the water ? Deer, I do 
believe,” cried Jasper, quickly drawing the 
small shot from his gun and putting in a ball 
instead. “ Come, lads, we shall have venison 
for supper to-night. That beast can’t reach 
t’other side so soon as we can. ” 

Jasper leaped quickly down the hill, and 


20 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


dashed through the hushes towards the spot 
where their canoe lay. He was closely fol- 
lowed by his companions, and in less than 
two minutes they were darting across the 
lake in their little Indian canoe, which was 
made of birch bark, and was so light that 
one man could carry it easily. 

While they are thus engaged I will intro- 
duce the reader to John Hey wood. This 
individual was a youth of nineteen or twenty 
years of age, who was by profession a paint- 
er of landscapes and animals. He was 
tall and slender in person, with straight 
black hair, a pale haggard-looking face, an 
excitable nervous manner, and an enthusias- 
tic temperament. Being adventurous in his 
disposition, he had left his father’s home in 
Canada, and entreated his friend, Jasper 
Derry, to take him along with him into the 
wilderness. At first Jasper was very unwill- 
ing to agree to this request; because the 
young artist was utterly ignorant of every- 
thing connected with a life in the woods, and 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


21 


lie cuold neither use a paddle nor a gun. 
But Heywood’s father had done him some 
service at a time when he was ill and in 
difficulties, so, as the youth was very anxious 
to go, he resolved to repay this good turn of 
the father by doing a kindness to the son. 

Heywood turned out hut a poor back- 
woodsman, but he proved to be a pleasant, 
amusing companion ; and as Jasper and the 
Indian were quite sufficient for the manage- 
ment of the light canoe, and the good gun of 
the former was more than sufficient to feed 
the party, it mattered nothing to Jasper that 
.Heywood spent most of his time seated in 
the middle of the canoe, sketching the sce- 
nery as they went along. Still less did it mat- 
ter that Heywood missed everything he fired 
at, whether it was close at hand or far away. 

At first Jasper was disposed to look upon 
his young companion as a poor useless crea- 
ture; and the Indian regarded him with 
undisguised contempt. But after they had 
been some time in his company, the opinions 


22 


AWAY m THE WILDEKNESS. 


of these two men of the woods changed ; for 
they found that the artist was wise, and well 
informed on many subjects of which they 
were extremely ignorant; and they beheld 
with deep admiration the beautiful and life- 
like drawings and paintings which he pro- 
duced in rapid succession. 

Such was the romantic youth who had, 
for the sake of seeing and painting the wil- 
derness, joined himself to these rough sons of 
the forest, and who now sat in the centre of 
the canoe swaying his arms about and shout- 
ing with excitement as they quickly drew 
near to the swimming herd of deer. 

“ Keep yourself still,” said Jasper, looking 
over his shoulder, “ye’ll upset the canoe it 
ye go on like that. ” 

“ Give me the axe, I’ll kill him ! ” cried 
Heywood. 

“Take your pencil and draw him,” ob- 
served the hunter, with a quiet laugh. “ Now, 
Arrowhead, two good strokes of the paddle 
will do — there — so. ” 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


23 


As he spoke the canoe glanced up along- 
side of an affrighted deer, and in the twink- 
ling of an eye Jasper’s long knife was in its 
heart, and the water was dyed with blood. 
This happened quite near the opposite shore 
of the lake, so that in little more than half 
an hour after it was killed the animal was 
cut up and packed, and the canoe was again 
speeding towards the upper end of the lake, 
where the party arrived just as night began 
to fling its dark mantle over the wilderness. 


CHAPTER III. 


THE ENCAMPMENT. 

Camping out in the woods at night is 
truly a delightful thing, and the pleasantest 
part of it, perhaps, is the lighting of the fire. 
Light is agreeable to human eyes and cheer- 
ing to the human heart. Solomon knew and 
felt that when he penned the words, “A 
pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold 
the sun.” And the rising of the sun is 
scarcely more grateful to the feelings than 
the lighting of a fire on a dark night. So 
our friends thought and felt when the fire 
blazed up, but they were too busy and too 
hungry at the time to think about the state 
of their feelings. 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


25 


The Indian was hungry. A good fire 
had to be made before the venison could 
be roasted, so he gave his whole attention to 
the felling of dry trees and cutting them up 
into logs for the fire. J asper was also hun- 
gry, and a slight shower had wetted all the 
moss and withered grass, so he had enough 
to do to strike fire with flint and steel, catch 
a spark on a little piece of tinder, and then 
blow and coax the spark into a flame. 

The artist was indeed free to indulge in a 
little meditation ; but he had stumbled in the 
dark on landing, and bruised his shins, so he 
could only sit down on a rock and rub them, 
and feel miserable. 

But the fire soon caught ; branches were 
heaped up, great logs were piled on, forked 
tongues of flame began to leap up and lick 
the branches of the overhanging trees. The 
green leaves looked rich and warm ; the thick 
stems looked red and hot; the faces and 
clothes of the men seemed as if about to 
catch fire as they moved about the encamp- 
3 


26 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


ment preparing supper. In short, the whole 
scene was so extremely comfortable, in reali- 
ty as well as in appearance, that Heywood 
forgot his bruised shins, and began to rnb his 
hands with delight. 

In a very short time three juicy venison 
steaks were steaming before the three travel- 
lers, and in a much shorter time they had 
disappeared altogether and were replaced by 
three new ones. The mode of cooking was 
very simple. Each steak was fixed on a 
piece of stick and set up before the fire to 
roast. When one side was ready the artist, 
who seemed to have very little patience, 
began to cut off pieces and eat them while 
the other side was cooking. 

To say truth, men out in those regions 
have usually such good appetites that they are 
not particular as to the cooking of their food. 
Quantity, not quality, is what they desire. 
They generally feel very much like the Rus- 
sian, of whom it is said that he would be content 
to eat sawdust if he only got plenty of it ! 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 27 

The steaks were washed down with tea. 
There is no other drink in Rupert’s Land. 
The Hudson’s Bay Company found that 
spirits were so hurtful to the Indians that 
they refused to send them into the country • 
and at the present day there is no strong 
drink to he had for love or money over the 
length and breadth of their territories, ex- 
cept at those places where other fur-traders 
oppose them, and oblige them, in self-defence, 
to sell fire water, as the Indians call it. 

Tea is the great — the only — drink in Ru- 
pert’s land? Yes, laugh as you will, ye lov- 
ers of gin and beer and whisky, one who has 
tried it, and has seen it tried by hundreds of 
stout stalwart men, tells you that the tee- 
totaller is the best man for real hard work. 

The three travellers drank their tea and 
smacked their lips, and grinned at each other 
with great satisfaction. They could not have 
done more if it had been the best of brandy, 
and they the j oiliest of topers! But the 
height of their enjoyment was not reached 
until the pipes were lighted. 


28 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


It was quite a siglit to see them smoke ! 
Jasper lay with his huge frame extended in 
front of the blaze, puffing clouds of smoke 
thick enough to have shamed a small can- 
non. Arrowhead rested his back on the 
stump of a tree, stretched his feet toward the 
fire, and allowed the smoke to roll slowly 
through his nostrils as well as out at his 
mouth, so that it kept curling quietly round 
his nose, and up his cheeks, and into his eyes, 
and through his hair, in a most delightful 
manner; at least so it would seem, for his 
reddish-brown face beamed with happy con- 
tentment. 

Young Hey wood did not smoke, but he 
drew forth his sketch book and sketched his 
two companions ; and in the practice of his 
beloved art, I have no doubt, he was happier 
than either. 

“I wonder how many trading-posts the 
Hudson’s Bay Company has got ? ” said Hey- 
wood, as he went on with his work. 

“Hundreds of ’em,” said Jasper, pressing 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


29 


the red-hot tobacco into the howl of his pipe 
with the end of his little finger, as slowly 
and coolly as if his flesh were fire-proof. “ I 
don’t know, exactly, how many they’ve got. 
I donbt if anybody does, bnt they have them 
all over the country. You’ve seen a little of 
the country now, Heywood ; well, what yon 
have seen is very much like what you will 
see as long as you choose to travel hereaway. 
You come to a small clearing in the forest, 
with five or six log houses in it, a stockade 
round it, and a flag-staff in the middle of it, 
five, ten, or fifteen men, and a gentleman in 
charge. That’s a Hudson’s Bay Company’s 
trading-post. All round it lie the wild 
woods. Go through the woods for two or 
three hundred miles and you’ll come to 
another such post, or fort, as we sometimes 
call ’em. That’s how it is all the country 
over. Although there are many of them, 
the country is so uncommon big that they 
may he said to he few and far between. 
Some are bigger and some are less. There’s 
3 * 


30 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


scarcely a settlement in the country worthy 
o’ the name of a village except Red River ” — 

“ Ah ! Red River,” exclaimed Iley wood, 
u I’ve heard much of that settlement — hold 
steady, I’m drawing your nose just now — 
have you ever been there, Jasper? ” 

“ That have I, lad, and a fine place it is, 
extendin’ fifty miles or more along the river, 
with fine fields, and handsome houses, and 
churches, and missionaries and schools, and 
what not ; hut the rest of Rupert’s Land is 
just what you have seen ; no roads, no houses, 
no cultivated fields — nothing but lakes, and 
rivers, and woods, and plains without end, 
and a few Indians here and there, with plen- 
ty of wild beasts everywhere. These trad- 
ing-posts are scattered here and there, from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from Canada 
to the Frozen Sea, standin’ solitary-like in 
the midst of the wilderness, as if they had 
dropped down from the clouds by mistake 
and didn’t know exactly what to do with 
themselves.” 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


31 


“ How long have de Company lived ? ” in- 
quired Arrowhead, turning suddenly to Jas- 
per. 

The stout hunter felt a little put out. 
“ A-hem ! I don’t exactly know ; but it must 
have been a long time, no doubt.” 

“ Oh ! I can tell you that,” cried Heywood. 

“ You? ” said Jasper in surprise. 

“Ay ; the Company was started nearly 
two hundred years ago by Prince Rupert, 
who was the first Governor, and that’s the 
reason the country came to be called Ru- 
pert’s Land. You know its common name 
is c the Hudson’s Bay Territory,’ because it 
surrounds Hudson’s Bay.” 

“ Why, where did you learn that ? ” said 
Jasper, “ I thought I knowed a-most every- 
thing about the Company ; but I must con- 
fess I never knew that about Prince Rupert 
before.” 

“ I learned it from books,” said the artist. 

“Books!” exclaimed Jasper, “I never 
learned nothin’ from books — more’s the pity. 


32 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


I git along well enough, in the trappin’ and 
shootin’ way without ’em; but I’m sorry I 
never learned to read. Ah ! I’ve a great 
opinion of books — so I have.” 

The worthy hunter shook his head solemn- 
ly as he said this in a low voice, more to him- 
self than to his companions, and he continued 
to mutter and shake his head for some min- 
utes, while he knocked the ashes out of his 
pipe. Having refilled and relighted it, he 
drew his blanket over his shoulder, laid his 
head upon a tuft of grass, and continued to 
smoke until he fell asleep, and allowed the 
pipe to fall from his lips. 

The Indian followed his example, with 
this difference, that he laid aside his pipe, 
and drew the blanket over his head and un- 
der his feet, and wrapped it around him in 
such a way that he resembled a man sewed 
up in a sack. 

Heywood was thus compelled to shut 
his sketch book ; so he also wrapped himself 
in his blanket, and was soon sound asleep. 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


33 


The camp-fire gradually sank low. Once 
or twice the end of a log fell, sending up a 
bright flame and a shower of sparks, which, 
for a few seconds, lighted up the scene again 
and revealed the three slumbering figures. 
But at last the fire died out altogether, and 
left the encampment in such thick darkness 
that the sharpest eye would have failed to 
detect the presence of man in that distant 
part of the lone wilderness. 


CHAPTER IV. 


MOSQUITOES — CAMP-FIRE TALK. 

There is a certain fly in tlie American 
forests winch is worthy of notice, because it 
exercises a great influence over the happiness 
of man in those regions. This fly is found in 
many other parts of the world, but it swarms 
in immense numbers in America, particular- 
ly in the swampy districts of that continent, 
and in the hot months of summer. It is 
called a mosquito — pronounced moskeeto — 
and it is, perhaps, the most tormenting, the 
most persevering, savage, vicious little mon- 
ster on the face of the earth. Other flies go 
to sleep at night, the mosquito never does. 
Darkness puts down other flies — it seems to 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


35 


encourage tlie mosquito. Day and night it 
persecutes man and beast, and the only time 
of the twenty-four hours in which it seems to 
rest is about noon, when the heat puts it 
down for a little. But this period of rest 
strengthens it for a renewal of war during 
the remainder of the day and night. In form 
the mosquito very much resembles the gnat, 
but is somewhat larger. His instrument of 
torture is his nose, which is quite as long as 
his body, and sharper than the finest needle. 
Being unable to rest because of the mosqui- 
toes, Heywood resolved to have a chat. 

“ Come, Jasper,” said he, looking up into 
his companion’s grave countenance, “al- 
though we have been many weeks on this 
journey now, you have not yet told me what 
has brought you here, or what the end of 
your trip is going to be.” 

“I’ve come here a-hunting,” said Jasper, 
with the look and tone of a man who did not 
wish to be questioned. 

“ Hay now, I know that is not the reason,” 


36 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


said Heywood, smiling; “you could have 
liunted much nearer home, if you had been 
so minded, and to as good purpose. Come, 
Jasper, you know I’m your friend, and that 
I wish you well. Let me hear what has 
brought you so far into the wilderness, may- 
hap I can give you some good advice if you 
do.” 

“ Well, lad, I don’t mind if I do. Though, 
for the matter of good advice, I don’t feel 
much in need of any just at this time.” 

Jasper shook the ashes out of his pipe, and 
refilled it as he spoke; then he shook his 
head once or twice and smiled, as if his 
thoughts amused him. Having lighted the 
pipe, he stretched himself out in a more com- 
fortable way before the blaze, and said — 

“Well, lad, I’ll tell ye what it is — it’s the 
old story ; the love of woman has brought me 
here.” 

“And a very good old story it is,” returned 
Heywood, with a look of interest. “ A poor 
miserable set of creatures we should be with- 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 37 

out that same love of woman. Come, Jas- 
per, I’m glad to hear you’re such a sensible 
fellow. I know something about that sub- 
ject myself. There’s a pretty, blue-eyed girl, 
with golden hair, down away in Canada 
that ” — 

Heywood stopped short in his speech and 
sighed. 

“ Come, it ain’t a hopeless case, is it \ ” 
said Jasper, with a look of sympathy. 

u I rather fear it is ; but I hope not. Ah ! 
what should we do without hope in this 
world ? ” 

“ That’s true,” observed Jasper, with much 
gravity, “ we could not get on at all without 
hope.” 

“ But come, J asper,” said the artist, “ let’s 
hear about your affair, and I’ll tell you about 
mine some other time.” 

“Well, there is not much to tell, but I’ll 
give ye all that’s of it. You must know, 
then, that about two years ago I was in the 
service of the Hudson’s Bay Company, at one 
4 


38 


AWAY m THE WILDERNESS. 


o’ their out-posts in the McKenzie’s Kiver 
district. We had little to eat there and lit- 
tle to do, and I felt so lonesome, never seein’ 
a human bein’ except the four or five men at 
the fort an’ a few Indians, that I made up my 
mind to quit. I had no reason to complain 
o’ the Company, d’ye see. They always 
treated me handsomely, and it was no fault o’ 
theirs that the livin’ in that district was poor 
and the post lonesome. 

“ Well, on my way down to Lake Winni- 
peg, I fell in with a brigade o’ boats goin’ to 
the Saskatchewan district, and we camped 
together that night. One o’ the guides of 
the Saskatchewan brigade had his daughter 
with him. The guide was a French-Cana- 
dian, and his wife had been a Scotch half- 
caste, so what the daughter was is more than 
I can tell ; but I know what she looked like. 
She just looked like an angel. It wasn’t so 
much that she was pretty, but she was so 
sweet, and so quiet lookin’, and so innocent ! 
Well, to cut the matter short, I fell in love 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


39 


at once. D’ye know what it is, Heywood, to 
fall in love at first sight ? ” 

“ Oh ! don’t I? ” replied the artist, with 
sudden energy. 

“An’ d’ye know,” continued Jasper, “what 
it is to be fallen-in-love-with, at first sight % ” 
“Well, no, I’m not so sure about that,” 
replied Heywood, sadly. 

“I do, then,” said Jasper, “for that sweet 
critter fell in love with me right off — though 
what she saw in me to love has puzzled me 
much. Howsoever, she did, and for that I’m 
thankful. Her name is Marie Laroche. She 
and I opened our minds to each other that 
night, and I took the guide, her father, into 
the woods, and told him I wanted his daugh- 
ter ; and he was agreeable ; but he would not 
hear of my takin’ her away then and there. 
He told me I must go down to Canada and 
get settled, and when I had a house to put 
his daughter in, I was to come back into the 
wilderness here and be married to her, and 
then take her home — so here I am on my 


40 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


way to claim my bride. But there’s one 
thing that puzzles me sorely.” 

“ What is that ? ” asked Heywood. 

“ I’ve never heard from Marie from that 
day to this,” said Jasper. 

“ That is strange,” replied the other ; “ bnt 
perhaps she cannot write.” 

“ That’s true. Now you speak of it, I do 
believe she can’t write a line ; but, then, she 
might have got some one to write for her.” 

“ Did you leave your address with her ? ” 

“ How could I, when I had no address to 
leave ? ” 

“ But did you ever send it to her ? ” 

“No, I never thought of that,” said Jas- 
per, opening his eyes very wide. “Come, 
that’s a comfort — that’s a good reason for 
never havin’ heard from her. Thankee, lad, 
for puttin’ me up to it. And, now, as we 
must be up and away in another hour, I’ll 
finish my nap.” 

So saying, Jasper put out his pipe and 
once more drew his blanket over him. Hey- 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


41 


wood followed his example, and while he lay 
there gazing np at the stars through the trees, 
he heard the worthy hunter muttering to 
himself, “That’s it; that accounts for my 
not hearin’ from her.” 

A sigh followed the words, very soon a 
snore followed the sigh, and ere many min- 
utes had passed away, the encampment was 
again bulled in darkness and repose. 


CHAPTER Y. 

JOURNEYING IN THE WILDERNESS. 

It seemed to Heywood tliat lie had not 
been asleep more than five minutes, when he 
was aroused by Jasper laying his heavy hand 
on his shoulder. On rubbing his eyes and 
gazing round him, he found that the first 
streak of dawn was visible in the eastern sky, 
that the canoe was already in the water, and 
that his companions were ready to embark. 

It is usually found that men are not dis- 
posed to talk at that early hour. Heywood 
merely remarked that it was a fine morning, 
to which Jasper replied by a nod of his head. 
hTothing more was said. The artist rolled up 
his blanket in a piece of oiled-cloth, collected 


AWAY m THE WILDERNESS. 


43 


his drawing materials and pnt them into 
their bag, got into his place in the centre of 
the canoe, and immediately went to sleep, 
while Jasper and the Indian, taking their 
places in the bow and stern, dipped the pad- 
dles into the water and shot away from the 
shore. They looked mysterious and ghostly 
in the dim morning light; and the whole 
scene aronnd them looked mysterious and 
ghostly too, for the water in the lake seemed 
black, and the shores and islands looked like 
dark shadows, and a pale thin mist rolled 
slowly over the surface of the water and hung 
overhead. Ho sound was heard except the 
light plash of the paddles as the two back- 
woodsmen urged their little canoe swiftly 
along. 

By degrees the light of day increased, 
and Jasper awakened Hey wood, in order 
that he might behold the beautiful scenery 
through which they passed. They were now 
approaching the upper end of the lake, in 
which there were innumerable islands of 


44 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS . 


every shape and size — some of them not 
more than a few yards in length, while some 
were two or three hundred yards across, hut 
all were clothed with the most beautiful 
green foliage and shrubbery. As the pale 
yellow of the eastern sky began to grow red, 
ducks and gulls bestirred themselves. Early 
risers among them first began to chirp, and 
scream, and whistle their morning song, — for 
there are lazy ones among the birds, just as 
there are among men. Sometimes, when 
the canoe rounded a point of rock, a flock of 
geese were found floating peacefully among 
the sedges, sound asleep, with their heads 
under their wings. These would leap into 
the air and fly off in great alarm, with much 
difficulty and tremendous splutter, remind- 
ing one of the proverb, “The more haste 
the less speed.” At other times they would 
come upon a flock of ducks so suddenly, 
that they had no time to take wing, so they 
dived instead, and thus got out of the way. 

Then the yellow hue of sunrise came, a 


AWAY IN THE WILDEENESS. 


45 


good while before the sun himself rose. The 
last of the bright stars were put out by the 
flood of light, and multitudes of little birds 
on shore began to chirp their morning song ; 
and who can say that this was not a hymn of 
praise to God, when, in the Holy Bible itself, 
in the 150th Psalm, we find it written, 
“ Let everything that hath breath praise the 
Lord.” 

At last the sun burst forth in all his 
golden glory. Water, earth, and sky glowed 
as if they had been set on fire. What a 
blessed influence the sun has upon this world ! 
It resembles the countenance of a loving 
father beaming in upon his family, driving 
away clouds, and diffusing warmth and joy. 

The birds were now all astir together, in- 
somuch that the air seemed alive with them. 
There are small white gulls, with red legs 
and red beaks, in those large inland lakes, 
just as there are on the ocean. These began 
to utter their sweet wild cries so powerfully 
that they almost drowned the noise of all the 


46 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


rest. Yet the united chorus of the whole 
was not harsh. It was softened and mellow- 
ed by distance, and fell on the ears of the 
two hunters as pleasantly as the finest music 
does in the ears of men trained to sweet 
sounds from infancy. 

Hot until the sun had ascended a consid- 
erable way on its course through the sky, did 
Jasper think it necessary to lay down his 
paddle. By that time the upper end of the 
lake had been reached, and the hunter ran 
the canoe close to a ledge of flat rock and 
jumped ashore, saying that it was time for 
breakfast. 

“I had almost got to believe I was in 
paradise,” said Heywood, as he stepped 
ashore. 

u I often think there’s a good deal of the 
garden of Eden still left in this world,” 
replied Jasper, as he carried the kettle up to 
the level part of the rock and began to kindle 
a fire, while the Indian, as usual, hewed the 
wood. “ If we could only make use of God’s 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


47 


gifts instead of abusin’ them, I do believe we 
might be very happy all onr days.” 

“ See, there, Jasper, is one of the birds I 
want so mnch to get hold of. I want to 
make a drawing of him. Would you object 
to spend a shot on such game ? ” 

Heywood pointed as he spoke to a gray 
bird, about the size of a blackbird, which sat 
on a branch close above his head. This crea- 
ture is called by fur-traders a whisky- John, 
and it is one of the most impudent little 
birds in the world ! Wherever you go 
throughout the country, there you find whis- 
ky- Johns ready to receive and welcome you, 
as if they were the owners of the soil. They 
are perfectly fearless ; they will come and sit 
on a branch within a yard of your hand, 
when you are eating, and look at you in the 
most inquisitive manner. If they could speak, 
they could not say more plainly, “ What 
have you got there ? — give me some ! ” If you 
leave the mouth of your provision sack open 
they are sure to jump into it. When you 


48 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS, 


are done eating they will scarcely let you. six 
yards away before they make a dash at the 
crumbs ; and if you throw sticks or stones at 
them, they will hop out of the way, but they 
will not take to flight ! 

“ It would be a pity to waste powder on 
them critters,” said Jasper, a but I’ll catch 
one for you.” 

As he said this he took a few crumbs of 
broken meat from the bottom of the provision 
sack and spread them on his right hand; 
then he lay down under a bush, covered his 
face with a few leaves, and thrust out his 
hand. Hey wood and the Indian retired a 
few paces and stood still to await the result. 

In a few seconds a whisky- John came 
flying towards the open hand, and alighted 
on a branch within a yard of it. Here he 
shook his feathers and looked very bold, but 
suspicious, for a few minutes, turning first 
one eye towards the hand, and then the other. 
After a little he hopped on a branch still 
nearer, and, seeing no motion in the hand, he 
at last hopped upon the palm and began to 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


49 


peck the crumbs. Instantly the fingers 
closed, and Jasper caught him by the toes, 
whereupon the whisky- John began to scream 
furiously with rage and terror. But I am 
bound to say there was more of rage than of 
terror in his cry. 

Jasper handed the passionate bird over 
to the artist, who tried to make a portrait of 
him, but he screamed and pecked so fiercely 
that Heywood was obliged to let him go 
after making a rough sketch. 

Breakfast was a repetition of the supper 
of the night before ; it was soon disposed of, 
and the three travellers again set forth. 
This time Jasper sang one of the beautiful 
canoe-songs peculiar to that country, and 
Heywood and Arrowhead, both of whom 
had good voices, joined in the chorus. 

They soon passed from the lake into the 
river by which it was fed. At first the cur- 
rent of this river was sluggish, but as they 
ascended, it became stronger, and was broken 
here and there by rapids. 

5 


50 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


The severe toil of travelling in the back- 
woods now began. To paddle on a level 
lake all day is easy enough, for, when you 
get tired, you can lay down the paddle and 
rest. But in the river this is impossible, be- 
cause of the current. The only way to get 
a rest is to push the bow of the canoe ashore. 
It was a fine sight to see the movements of 
Jasper and the Indian when they came to 
the first rapid. Heywood knew that he 
could be of no use, so, like a wise man, he 
sat still and looked on. 

The rapid was a very strong one, but 
there were no falls in it ; only a furious gush 
of water over the broken bed of the river, 
where many large rocks rose up and caught 
the current, hurling the water back in white 
foam. Any one who knew not what these 
hunters could do, would have laughed if you 
had told him they were about to ascend that 
rapid in such an egg-shell of a canoe ! 

They began by creeping up in-shore, as 
far as they could. Then they dashed boldly 


AWAY m THE WILDERNESS. 


51 


out into the stream, and the current whirled 
them down with lightning speed, hut sudden- 
ly the canoe came to a halt in the very mid- 
dle of the stream ! Every rock in a rapid has 
a long tail of still water below it ; the canoe 
had got into one of these tails or eddies, and 
there it rested securely. A few yards higher 
up there was another rock, nearer to the 
opposite bank, and the eddy which tailed off 
from it came down a little lower than the 
rock behind which the canoe now lay. There 
was a furious gush of water between them 
and this eddy, but the men knew what the 
canoe could bear, and their nerves were strong 
and steady. Across they went like a shot. 
They were swept down to the extreme point 
of the eddy, but a few powerful strokes 
of the paddle sent them into it, and the next 
moment they were floating behind the second 
rock, a few yards higher up the stream. 

Thus they darted from rock to rock, 
gaining a few yards at each dart, until at 
last they swept into the smooth water at the 
head of the rapid. 


52 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


Many a time was this repeated that day, 
for rapids were numerous ; their progress was 
therefore slow. Sometimes they came to 
parts of the river where the stream was very 
strong hut deep, and not broken by rocks, so 
that they had no eddies to dart into. In 
such places Arrowhead and Heywood walked 
along the hank and hauled the canoe up by 
means of a line, while Jasper remained in it 
to steer. This was hard work, for the banks in 
places were very steep, in some parts composed 
of soft mud, into which the men sank nearly 
up to their knees, and in other places covered 
so thickly with bushes tjiat it was almost 
impossible to force a path through them. 
Jasper and the Indian took the steering-pad- 
dle by turns, and when Heywood required a 
rest he got into his place in the middle of the 
canoe ; but they never halted for more than a 
few minutes at a time. All day they paddled 
and dragged the canoe slowly up against the 
strong current, and when night closed in 
they found they had advanced only three 
miles on their journey. 


AWAY m THE WILDERNESS. 


53 


The last obstacle they came to that day 
was a roaring waterfall about thirty feet 
high. Here, it might have been thought, 
was an effectual check to them at last. 
Nothing without wings could have gone up 
that waterfall, which filled the woods with 
the thunder of its roar ; but the canoe had no 
wings, so what was to be done ? 

To one ignorant of the customs of that 
country, going on would have seemed impossi- 
ble, but nothing can stop the advance of a 
back-woods voyager. If his canoe won’t car- 
ry him, he carries his canoe ! Jasper and his 
friends did so on the present occasion. They 
had reached what is called a portage or 
carrying-place, and there are hundreds of 
such places all over Rupert’s Land. 

On arriving at the foot of the fall, Hey- 
wood set off at once to a spot from which he 
could obtain a good view of it, and sat down 
to sketch, while his companions unloaded the 
canoe and lifted it out of the water. Then 
Jasper collected together as much of the 
5 * 


54 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


baggage as he could carry, and clambered up 
the bank with it until he reached the still 
water at the top of the fall. Here he laid it 
down and returned for another load. Mean- 
while Arrowhead lifted the canoe with great 
ease, placed it on his shoulders, and bore 
it to the same place. When all had been 
carried up, the canoe was launched into the 
quiet water a few hundred yards above the 
fall, the baggage was replaced in it, and the 
travellers were ready to continue their voyage. 
This whole operation is called making a por- 
tage. It took about an hour to make this 
portage. 

Portages vary in length and in numbers. 
In some rivers they are few and far between ; 
in others they are so numerous that eight or 
twelve may have to be made in a day. 
Many of the portages are not more than an 
eighth of a mile in length, and are crossed 
for the purpose of avoiding a waterfall. 
Some are four or five miles in extent, for 
many long reaches in the rivers are so broken 







MAKING A PORTAG E . 




i 







* 









•- 




















« 









. * 




















* 




* 











4 


$ 






4 







AWAY LIST THE WILDERNESS. 55 

by falls and rapids, that the voyagers find it 
their best plan to take canoes and baggage 
on their backs and cnt across country for 
several miles ; thus they avoid rough places 
altogether. 

Jasper delayed starting for half an hour, 
in order to give Heywood time to fin- 
ish his sketch of the fall. It began to grow 
dark when they again embarked, so, after 
paddling up stream until a convenient place 
was found, they put ashore and encamped 
within sight of another waterfall, the roar of 
which, softened by distance, fell upon their 
ears all that night like the sound of pleasant 


music. 


CHAPTER VI. 


THE OUTPOST. 

On the morning of the second day after 
the events which I have described in the last 
chapter, our three travellers arrived at one 
of the solitary outposts belonging to the fur- 
traders. It stood on the hanks of the river, 
and consisted of four small houses made of 
logs. It covered about an acre of ground, 
and its only defence was a wall of wooden 
posts, about two inches apart, which com- 
pletely surrounded the buildings. 

“ This fort is a namesake of mine,” said 
Jasper, when they first sighted it; “they 
call it Jasper’s House. I spent a day at it 
when I was hereaway two years ago.” 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


57 


“ Who is in charge of it \ ” asked Hey- 
wood. 

“ A gentleman named Grant, I believe,” 
replied Jasper. “ That white-painted house 
in the middle of the square is his. The 
other house on the right, painted yellow, is 
where the men live. Mr. Grant has only 
got six men, poor fellow, to keep him com- 
pany ; he seldom sees a new face here from 
one end of' the year to the other. But he 
makes a trip once a year to the head post of 
the district with his furs, and that’s a sort of 
break to him.” 

“ Are there no women at the place ? ” in- 
quired the artist. 

“ Only two,” replied Jasper. “At least 
there were two when I was here last ; they 
were wives of two of the men, Indian women 
they were, with few brains, and little or 
nothin’ to say ; but they were useful critters 
for all that, for they could make coats, and 
trousers, and moccasins, and mittens, and 
they were first-rate cooks, besides bein’ 


58 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


handy at almost every kind o’ work. They 
could even use the gun. I’ve heard o’ them 
bringin’ down a wild goose on the wing, 
when none o’ the men were at hand to let 
drive at the passing flock. I do believe 
that’s Mr. Grant himself standin’ at the gate 
o’ the fort.” 

Jasper was right. The master of Jasper’s 
House, a big, hearty-looking man of about 
five-and-forty, was standing at the gate of 
his lonely residence, leaning against one of 
the door-posts, with his hands in his breeches 
pockets and a short pipe in his mouth. His 
summer employments had come to an end, — 
no Indians had been near the place for many 
weeks, and he happened to have nothing at 
that time to do but eat, smoke, and sleep ; 
which three occupations he usually attended 
to with much earnestness. Mr. Grant did 
not observe the canoe approaching from be- 
low, for at that time his attention was at- 
tracted to something up the river. Suddenly 
he started, took his pipe from his lips, and, 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


59 


bending forward, listened with deep, earnest 
attention. A faint murmur came floating 
down on the breeze, sending a thrill of pleas- 
ure to the heart of the solitary man, as well 
it might, for a new face was a rare sight at 
Jasper’s House. 

At last a loud shout rang through the 
forest, and five Indian canoes swept round a 
point of rocks, and came suddenly into view, 
the men tossing their paddles in the air and 
sending rainbows of spray over their heads 
as they made for the landing-place. These 
were three or four families of Indians, who 
had come from a long hunting expedition 
laden with rich furs. 

Their canoes, though small and light, 
could hold a wonderful quantity. In the 
foremost sat a young savage, with a dark- 
brown face, glittering black eyes, and stiff 
black hair hanging straight down all round 
his head, except in front, where it was cut 
short off just above the eyes in order to let 
his face appear. That fellow’s canoe, besides 


60 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


himself, carried his three wives — he was a 
good hunter, and could afford to have three. 
Had he been a had hunter, he would have 
had to content himself, poor fellow, with 
one ! The canoe also contained six or seven 
heavy packs of furs ; a haunch of venison ; 
six pairs of rabbits ; several ducks and geese ; 
a lump of bear’s meat; two little boys and a 
girl; a large tent made of deer-skins; four 
or five tin kettles ; two or three dirty-looking 
dogs and a gun ; several hatchets and a few 
blankets ; two babies and a dead beaver. 

In short, there was almost no end to what 
that bark canoe could hold ; yet that Indian, 
with the stiff black hair, could lift it off the 
ground, when empty, lay it on his shoulders, 
and carry it for miles through the forest. 
The other canoes were much the same as this 
one. 

In a few minutes they were at the bank, 
close under the fort, and about the same time 
Jasper and his friends leaped ashore, and 
were heartily welcomed by Mr. Grant, who 


AWAY m THE WILDERNESS. 


61 


was glad enough to see Indians, but was 
overjoyed to meet with white men. 

“Glad to see you, Jasper,” cried Mr. 
Grant, shaking the hunter by the hand; 
“ right glad to see you. It does good to a 
man to see an old friend like you turn up so 
unexpectedly. Happy, also, to meet with 
you, Mr. Heywood. It’s a pleasure I don’t 
often have to meet with a white stranger in 
this wilderness. Pray, come with me to the 
house.” 

The fur-trader turned to the Indians, and, 
saying a few words to them in their own lan- 
guage, led the way to his residence. 

Meanwhile, the Indians had tossed every- 
thing out of the canoes upon the bank, and 
the spot which had been so quiet and solitary 
half an hour before, became a scene of the 
utmost animation and confusion. While the 
women were employed in erecting the tents, 
the men strode up to the hall of reception, 
where Mr. Grant supplied them with tobacco 
and food to their hearts’ content. 

6 


62 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


These natives, who, owing to the reddish 
copper-color of their skins, are called red- 
men, — were dressed chiefly in clothes made 
of deer-skin ; cut much in the same fashion 
as the garments worn by Jasper Derry. The 
women wore short gowns, also made of 
leather, and leggings of the same material ; 
but it was noticeable that the women had 
leggings more ornamented with gay beads 
than those of the men, and they wore gaudy 
kerchiefs round their necks. 

These women were poor looking crea- 
tures, however. They had a subdued, hum- 
ble look, like dogs that are used to being 
kicked; very different from the bold free 
bearing of the men. The reason of this was, 
that they were treated by the men more as 
beasts of burden than companions. Women 
among the North American Indians have a 
hard time of it, poor creatures. While their 
lords and masters are out at the chase, or 
idly smoking round the fire, the Indian 
women are employed in cutting firewood 


AWAY IN THE WILDEKNESS. 


63 


and drawing water. Of course, they do all 
the cooking, and, as the eating always con- 
tinues, so the cooking never stops. When 
these more severe labours are over, they em- 
ploy their time in making and ornamenting 
coats, leggings, and moccasins — and very 
beautiful work they can turn out of their 
hands. On the voyage, the women use the 
paddle as well as the men, and, in journey- 
ing through the woods, they always carry or 
drag the heaviest loads. For all this they 
get few thanks, and often, when the hus- 
bands become jealous, they get severely 
beaten and kicked. 

It is always thus among savages ; and it 
would seem that, just in proportion as men 
rise from the savage to the civilized state, 
they treat their women better. It is certain 
that when man embraces the blessed gospel 
of Christ and learns to follow the law of love, 
he places woman not only on a level with 
himself but even above himself, and seeks 
her comfort and happiness before he seeks 
his own. 


64 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


Few of the Eed men of North America 
are yet Christians, therefore they have no 
gallantry about them — no generous and chiv- 
alrous feelings towards the weaker sex. 
Most of their women are down-trodden and 
degraded. 

The first night at Jasper’s House was 
spent in smoking and talking. Here our 
friend Jasper Derry got news of Marie. To 
his immense delight he learned that she was 
well, and living with her father at Fort Erie, 
near the plains, or prairies as they are called, 
on the Saskatchewan River. A long jour- 
ney still lay before our bold hunter, but that 
was nothing to him. He felt quite satisfied 
to hear that the girl of his heart was well, 
and still unmarried. 

Next day the serious business of trading 
commenced at the outpost. 

“I should like to get that powder and 
ball before you begin to trade with the In- 
dians, Mr. Grant,” said Jasper, after break- 
fast was concluded, “ I’m anxious to be off as 
soon as possible.” 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


65 


“ No, no, J asper, I’ll not give yon a single 
charge of powder or an ounce of lead this 
day. You must spend another night with 
me, my man ; I have not had half my talk 
out with you. You have no need to hurry, 
for Marie does not know you are coming, so 
of course she can’t be impatient.” 

Mr. Grant said this with a laugh, for he 
knew the state of J asper’s heart, and under- 
stood why he was so anxious to hasten away. 

“ Besides,” continued the fur-trader, “ Mr. 
Heywood has not half finished the drawing 
of my fort, which he began yesterday, and I 
want him to make me a copy of it.” 

“ I shall be delighted to do so,” said the 
artist, who was busily engaged in arranging 
his brushes and colours. 

“Well, well,” cried Jasper, “I suppose I 
must submit. I fancy you have no objection 
to stop here another day, Arrowhead ? ” 

The Indian nodded gravely, as he squat- 
ted down on the floor and began to fill his 
pipe. 

6 * 


66 


AWAY IN THE WILDEENESS. 


“ That’s settled, then,” said Jasper, “ so 
I’ll go with you to the store, if you’ll allow 
me.” 

“With all my heart,” replied the fur- 
trader, who forthwith led the way to the 
store, followed by the Indians with their 
packs of furs. 

How, the store or shop at a Hudson’s 
Bay trading-post is a most interesting and 
curious place. To the Indian, especially, it 
is a sort of enchanted chamber, out of which 
can be obtained everything known under the 
sun. As there can be only one shop or store 
at a trading-post, it follows that that shop 
must contain a few articles out of almost 
every other style of shop in the world. Ac- 
cordingly, you will find collected within the 
four walls of that little room, knives and 
guns from Sheffield, cotton webs from Man- 
chester, grindstones from Newcastle, tobacco 
from Yirginia, and every sort of thing from 
I know not where all ! You can buy a blan- 
ket or a file, an axe or a pair of trousers, a 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


67 


pound of sugar or a barrel of nails, a roll of 
tobacco or a tin kettle, — everything, in short, 
that a man can think of or desire. And you 
can buy it, too, without money! Indeed, 
you must buy it without money, for there is 
not such a thing as money in the land. 

The trade is carried on entirely by bar- 
ter, or exchange. The Indian gives the 
trader his furs, and the trader gives him his 
goods. In order to make the exchange fair 
and equitable, however, everything is rated 
by a certain standard of value, which is 
called a made-leader in one part of the coun- 
try, a castore in another. 

The first man that stepped forward to the 
counter was a chief. A big, coarse-looking, 
disagreeable man, but a first-rate hunter. 
He had two wives in consequence of his abil- 
ities, and the favourite wife now stood at his 
elbow to prompt, perhaps to caution, him. 
Jle threw down a huge pack of furs, which 
the trader opened, and examined with care, 
fixing the price of each skin, and marking it 


68 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


down with a piece of chalk on the counter as 
he went along. 

There were two splendid black bear-skins, 
two or three dozen martens, or sables, five or 
six black foxes, and a great many silver 
foxes, besides cross and red ones. In addi- 
tion to these, he had a number of minks and 
beaver-skins, a few otters, and sundry other 
furs, besides a few buffalo and deer-skins, 
dressed, and with the hair scraped off. These 
last skins are used for making winter coats, 
and also moccasins for the feet. 

After all had been examined and valued, 
the whole was summed up, and a number of 
pieces of stick were handed to the chief — 
each stick representing a castore ; so that he 
knew exactly how much he was worth, and 
proceeded to choose accordingly. 

First he gazed earnestly at a huge thick 
blanket, then he counted his sticks, and con- 
sidered. Perhaps the memory of the cold 
blasts of winter crossed his mind, for he 
quickly asked how many castores it was 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


69 


worth. The trader told him. The proper 
number of pieces of stick were laid down, 
and the blanket was handed over. Next a 
gun attracted his eye. The guns sent out 
for the Indian trade are very cheap ones, 
with blue barrels and red stocks. They 
shoot pretty well, but are rather apt to burst. 
Indeed this fate had befallen the chiefs last 
gun, so he resolved to have another, and 
bought it. Then he looked earnestly for 
some time at a tin kettle. Boiled meat was 
evidently in his mind ; but at this point his 
squaw plucked him by the sleeve/ She whis- 
pered in his ear. A touch of generosity 
seemed to come over him, for he pointed to a 
web of bright scarlet cloth. A yard of this was 
measured off, and handed to his spouse, whose 
happiness for the moment was complete — 
for squaws in Rupert’s Land, like the fair sex 
in England, are uncommonly fond of finery. 

As the chief proceeded, he became more 
cautious and slow in his choice. Finery 
tempted him on the one hand, necessaries 


70 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


pressed him on the other, and at this point 
the trader stepped in to help him to de- 
cide ; he recommended, warned, and advised. 
Twine was to he got for nets and fishing- 
lines, powder and shot, axes for cutting his 
winter fire-wood, cloth for his own and his 
wives’ leggings, knives, tobacco, needles, and 
an endless variety of things, which gradually 
lessened his little pile of sticks, until at last 
he reached the sticking-point, when all his 
sticks were gone. 

u How, Darkey e (that was the chief’s 
name), you’ve come to the end at last, and a 
good thing you have made of it this year,” 
said Mr. Grant, in the Indian language. 
“ Have you got all you want ? ” 

“ Darkeye wants bullets,” said the chief. 

“ Ah ! to be sure. You shall have a lot of 
these for nothing, and some tobacco too,” said 
the trader, handing the gifts to the Indian. 

A look of satisfaction lighted up the 
chief’s countenance as he received the gifts 
and made way for another Indian to open 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


71 


and display his pack of furs. But Jasper 
was struck by a peculiar expression in the 
face of Darkeye. Observing that he took up 
one of the bullets and showed it to another 
savage, our hunter edged near him to over- 
hear the conversation. 

“ Do you see that ball ? ” said the chief, 
in a low tone. 

The Indian to whom he spoke nodded. 

“ Look here ! ” 

Darkeye put the bullet into his mouth as 
he spoke, and bit it until his strong sharp 
teeth sank deep into the lead ; then, holding 
it up, he said, in the same low voice, “ You 
will know it again ? ” 

Once more the savage nodded, and a 
malicious smile played on his face for a mo- 
ment. 

Just then Mr. Grant called out, “ Come 
here, Jasper, tell me what you think this 
otter-skin is worth.” 

Jasper’s curiosity had been aroused by 
the mysterious conduct of Darkeye, and he 


72 4 AWAY IN THE WILDEKNE8S. 

would liave given a good deal to have heard 
a little more of his conversation ; but, being 
thus called away, he was obliged to leave his 
place, and soon forgot the incident. 

During the whole of that day the trad- 
ing of furs was carried on much as I have 
now described it. Some of the Indians had 
large packs, and some had small, but all of 
them had sufficient to purchase such things 
as were necessary for themselves and their 
families during the approaching winter ; and 
as each man received from Mr. Grant a pres- 
ent of tobacco, besides a few trinkets of 
small value, they returned to the Hall that 
night in high good humour. 

Next day, Jasper and his friends bade the 
hospitable trader farewell, and a few days 
after that the Indians left him. They 
smoked a farewell pipe, then struck their 
tents, and placed them and their packs of 
goods in the canoes, with their wives, chil- 
dren, and dogs. Pushing out into the stream, 
they commenced the return journey to their 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 73 

distant hunting-grounds. Once more their 
shouts rang through the forest, and rolled 
over the water, and once more the paddles 
sent the sparkling drops into the air as they 
dashed ahead, round the point of rocks 
above the fort, and disappeared ; leaving the 
fur-trader, as they found him, smoking his 
pipe, with his hands in his pockets, and lean- 
ing against the door-post of his once-again 
silent and solitary home. 

7 


CHAPTER VII. 


A SAYAGE FAMILY, AND A FIGHT 
WITH A BEAR. 

About a week after our travellers left the 
outpost, Arrowhead had an adventure with 
a hear, which had well-nigh cut short his 
journey through this world, as well as his 
journey in the wilderness of Rupert’s Land. 

It was in the evening of a beautiful day 
when it happened. The canoe had got 
among some bad rapids, and, as it advanced 
very slowly, young Heywood asked to be 
put on shore, that he might walk up the 
banks of the river, which were very beauti- 
ful, and sketch. 

In half an hour he was far ahead of the 
canoe. Suddenly, on turning round a rocky 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


75 


point, lie found himself face to face with a 
small Indian hoy. It is probable that the 
little fellow had never seen a white man be- 
fore, and it is certain that Heywood had 
never seen such a specimen of a brown boy. 
He was clothed in shin, it is true, but it was 
the skin in which he had been born, for he 
had not a stitch of clothing on his fat little 
body. 

As the man and the boy stood staring at 
each other, it would have been difficult to say 
which opened his eyes widest with amaze- 
ment. At first Heywood fancied the urchin 
was a wild beast of some sort on two legs, 
but a second glance convinced him that he 
was a real boy. The next thought that 
occurred to the artist was, that he would try 
to sketch him, so he clapped his hand to his 
pocket, pulled out his book and pencil, and 
forthwith began to draw. 

This terrified the little fellow so much, 
that he turned about and fled howling into 
the woods. Heywood thought of giving 


76 AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 

chase, but a noise attracted his attention at 
that moment, and, looking across the river, 
he beheld the boy’s father in the same cool 
dress as his son. The man had been fishing, 
but when he saw that strangers were passing, 
he threw his blanket round him, jumped into 
his canoe, and crossed over to meet them. 

This turned out to be a miserably poor 
family of Indians, consisting of the father, 
mother, three girls and a boy, and a few ill- 
looking dogs. They all lived together in a 
little tent or wigwam, made partly of skins 
and partly of birch-bark. This tent was 
shaped like a cone. The fire was kindled 
inside, in the middle of the floor. A hole in 
the side served for a door, and a hole in the 
top did duty for window and chimney. The 
family kettle hung above the fire, and the 
family circle sat around it. A dirtier family 
and filthier tent one could not wish to see. 
The father was a poor weakly man and a bad 
hunter ; the squaw was thin, wrinkled, and 
very dirty, and the children were all sickly- 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 77 

looking, except the boy before mentioned, 
wbo seemed to enjoy more than bis fair share 
of health and rotundity. 

“ Have ye got anything to eat ? ” inquired 
Jasper, when the canoe reached the place. 

They had not got much, only a few fish 
and an owl. 

“ Poor miserable critters,” said Jasper, 
throwing them a goose and a lump of veni- 
son ; “ see there — that’ll keep the wolf out 
o’ yer insides for some time. Have ye got 
anything to smoke ? ” 

Ho, they had nothing to smoke but a few 
dried leaves. 

“ Worse and worse,” cried Jasper, pulling 
a large plug of tobacco from the breast of his 
coat ; “ here, that’ll keep you puffin’ for a 
short bit, anyhow.” 

Heywood, although no smoker himself, 
carried a small supply of tobacco just to give 
away to Indians, so he added two or three 
plugs to Jasper’s gift, and Arrowhead gave 
the father a few charges of powder and shot. 
7 * 


78 


AWAY IN THE WILDEKNESS. 


They then stepped into their canoe, and 
pushed off with that feeling of light-hearted 
happiness which always follows the doing of 
a kind action. 

“ There’s hears up the river,” said the 
Indian, as they were leaving. 

“ Have ye seen them?” inquired Jasper. 

“Ay, but could not shoot — no powder, 
no ball. Look out for them ! ” 

“ That will I,” replied the hunter, and in 
another moment the canoe was out among 
the rapids again, advancing slowly up the 
river. 

In about an hour afterwards they came 
to a part of the river where the banks were 
high and steep. Here Jasper landed to look 
for the tracks of the bears. He soon found 
these, and as they appeared to be fresh, he 
prepared to follow them up. 

“We may as well encamp here,” said he 
to Arrowhead ; “ you can go and look for the 
bears. I will land the baggage, and haul up 
the canoe, and then take my gun and follow 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


79 


yon. I see that our friend Heywood is at 
work with his pencil already.” 

This was true. The keen artist was so 
delighted with the scene before him, that the 
moment the canoe touched the land he had 
jumped out, and, seating himself on the trunk 
of a fallen tree, with hook and pencil, soon 
forgot everything that was going on around 
him. 

Arrowhead shouldered his gun and went 
away up the river. Jasper soon finished 
what he had to do, and followed him, leaving 
Heywood seated on the fallen tree. 

How the position which Heywood occu- 
pied was rather dangerous. The tree lay on 
the edge of an overhanging hank of clay, 
about ten feet above the water, which was 
deep and rapid at that place. At first the 
young man sat down on the tree-trunk near 
its root, hut after a time, finding the position 
not quite to his mind, he changed it, and 
went close to the edge of the hank. He was 
so much occupied with his drawing, that he 


80 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS . 


did not observe that the ground on which his 
feet rested actually overhung the stream. 
As his weight rested on the fallen tree, how- 
ever, he remained there safe enough and busy 
for half an hour. 

At the end of that time he was disturbed 
by a noise in the bushes. Looking up, he 
beheld a large brown bear coming straight 
towards him. Evidently the bear did not see 
him, for it was coming slowly and lazily along 
with a quiet meditative expression on its face. 
The appearance of the animal was so sudden 
and unexpected, that poor Heywood’s heart 
almost leaped into his mouth. His face grew 
deadly pale, his long hair almost rose on his 
head with terror, and he was utterly unable 
to move hand or foot. 

In another moment the bear was within 
three yards of him, and, being taken by sur- 
prise, it immediately rose on its hind legs, 
which is the custom of bears when about 
to make or receive an attack. It stared for 
a moment at the horrified artist. 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


81 


Let not my reader think that Heywood’s 
feelings were dne to cowardice. The bravest 
of men have been panic-stricken when taken 
by surprise. The young man had never seen 
a bear before, except in a cage, and the differ- 
ence between a caged and a free bear is very 
great. Besides, when a rough-looking mon- 
ster of this kind comes unexpectedly on a 
man who is unarmed, and has no chance of 
escape, and rises on its hind legs, as if to let 
him have a full view of its enormous size, its 
great strength, and its ugly appearance, he 
may well be excused for feeling a little un- 
comfortable, and looking somewhat uneasy. 

When the bear rose, as I have said, Hey- 
wood’s courage returned. His first act was 
to fling his sketch-book in Bruin’s face, and 
then, uttering a loud yell, he sprang to his 
feet, intending to run away. But the vio- 
lence of his action broke off the earth under 
his feet. He dropt into the river like a lump 
of lead, and was whirled away in a moment ! 

What that bear thought when it saw the 


82 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


man vanish from the spot like a ghost, of 
course I cannot tell. It certainly looked sur- 
prised, and, if it was a bear of ordinary sen- 
sibility, it must undoubtedly have felt aston- 
ished. At any rate, after standing there 
gazing for nearly a minute in mute amaze- 
ment at the spot where Heywood had dis- 
appeared, it let itself down on its fore-legs, 
and, turning round, walked slowly back into 
the bushes. 

Poor Heywood could not swim, so the river 
did what it pleased with him. After sweep- 
ing him out into the middle of the stream, 
and rooling him over five or six times, and 
whirling him round in an eddy close to the 
land, and dragging him out again into the 
main current, and sending him struggling 
down a rapid, it threw him at last, like a 
bundle of old clothes, on a shallow, where he 
managed to get on his feet, and staggered 
to the shore in a most melancholy plight. 
Thereafter he returned to the encampment, 
like a drowned rat, with his long hair plas- 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


83 


tered to his thin face, and his soaked gar- 
ments clinging tightly to his slender body. 
Had he been able to see himself at that mo- 
ment, he would have laughed, but, not being 
able to see himself, and feeling very miserable, 
he sighed and shuddered with cold, and then 
set to work to kindle a fire and dry himself. 

Meanwhile the bear continued its walk up 
the river. Arrowhead, after a time, lost the 
track of the bear he was in search of 3 and, 
believing that it was too late to follow it up 
further that night, he turned about, and began 
to retrace his steps. Hot long after that, he 
and the bear met face to face. Of course, 
the Indian’s gun was levelled in an instant, 
but the meeting was so sudden, that the aim 
was not so true as usual, and, although the 
ball mortally wounded the animal, it did not 
kill him outright. 

There was no time to reload, so Arrow- 
head dropped his gun and ran. He doubled 
as he ran, and made for the encampment; 
but the bear ran faster. It was soon at the 


84 : 


AWAY m THE WILDEBNESS. 


Indian’s heels. Knowing that further flight 
was useless, Arrowhead drew the hatchet 
that hung at his belt, and, turning round, 
faced the infuriated animal, which instantly 
rose on its hind legs and closed with him. 

The Indian met it with a tremendous 
blow of his axe, seized it by the throat with 
his left hand, and endeavoured to repeat the 
blow.* But brave and powerful though he 
was, the Indian was like a mere child in the 
paw of the bear. The axe descended with a 
crash on the monster’s head, and sank into its 
skull. But bears are notoriously hard to 
kill. This one scarcely seemed to feel the 
blow. Kext instant Arrowhead was down, 
and, with its claws fixed in the man’s back, 
the bear held him down, while it began to 
gnaw the fleshy part of his left shoulder. 

Ko cry escaped from the prostrate hunter. 
He determined to lie perfectly still, as if he 
were dead, that being his only chance of 
escape: but the animal was furious, and 
* See frontispiece. 


AWAY m THE WILDEKNESS. 85 

there is little doubt that the Indian’s brave 
spirit would soon have fled, had not God 
mercifully sent Jasper Derry to his relief. 

That stout hunter had been near at hand 
when the shot was fired. He at once ran in the 
direction whence the sound came, and arrived 
on the scene of the struggle just as Arrowhead 
fell. Without a moment’s hesitation he drop- 
ped on one knee, took a quick but careful aim, 
and fired. The ball entered the bear’s head 
just behind the ear and rolled it over dead ! 

Arrowhead’s first act on rising was to 
seize the hand of his deliverer, and in a tone 
of deep feeling exclaimed, “ My brother ! ” 

“Ay,” said Jasper with a quiet smile, as 
he reloaded his gun ; “ this is not the first 
time that you and I have helped one another 
in the nick of time, Arrowhead ; we shall be 
brothers, and good friends to boot, I hope, as 
long as we live.” 

“ Good,” said the Indian, a smile lighting 
up for one moment his usually grave feat- 
ures. 

8 


86 AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 

u But my brother is wounded, let me see,” 
said Jasper. 

“ It will soon be well,” said tbe Indian 
carelessly, as be took off bis coat and sat 
down on tbe bank, while tbe white hunter 
examined bis wounds. 

This was all that was said on tbe subject 
by these two men. They were used to dan- 
ger in every form, and bad often saved each 
other from sudden death. Tbe Indian’s 
wounds, though painful, were trifling. Jas- 
per dressed them in silence, and then drawing 
his long hunting-knife, he skinned and cut 
up the bear, while his companion lay down 
on the bank, smoked his pipe and looked on. 
Having cut off the best parts of the carcass 
for supper, the hunters returned to the canoe, 
carrying the skin along with them. 


CHAPTER YIH. 


RUNNING- THE FALLS WILD SCENES 

AND MEN. 

Next day the travellers reached one of 
those magnificent lakes of which there are so 
many in the wild woods of North America, 
and which are so like to the great ocean 
itself, that it is scarcely possible to believe 
them to be bodies of fresh water until they 
are tasted. 

The largest of these inland seas is the 
famous Lake Superior, which is so enormous 
in size that ships can sail on its broad bosom 
for several days out of sight of land. It is 
upwards of three hundred miles long, and 
about one hundred and fifty broad. A good 
idea of its size may be formed from the 


88 


AWAY m THE WILDERNESS. 


fact, that it is large enough to contain the 
whole of Scotland, and deep enough to cover 
her highest hills ! 

The lake on which the canoe was now 
launched, although not so large as Superior, 
was, nevertheless, a respectable body of 
water, on which the sun was shining as 
if on a shield of bright silver. There 
were numbers of small islets scattered over 
its surface; some thickly wooded to the 
water’s edge, others little better than bare 
rocks. Crossing this lake they came to the 
mouth of a pretty large stream and began to 
ascend it. The first thing they saw on round- 
ing a bend in the stream was an Indian tent, 
and in front of this tent was an Indian baby, 
hanging from the branch of a tree. 

Let not the reader be horrified. The 
child was not hanging by the neck, but by 
the handle of its cradle, which its mother 
had placed there, to keep her little one out 
of the way of the dogs. The Indian cradle 
is a very simple contrivance. A young 
mother came out of the tent with her child 


AWAY m THE WILDERNESS. 


89 


just as tlie canoe arrived, and began to pack 
it in its cradle. Jasper stopped for a few 
minutes to converse with one of the Indians, 
so that the artist had a good opportunity of 
witnessing the whole operation. 

The cradle was simply a piece of flat 
board, with a bit of scarlet cloth fastened 
down each side of it. First of all, the moth' 
er laid the poor infant, which was quite 
naked, sprawling on the ground. A dirty- 
looking dog took advantage of this to sneak 
forward and smell at it, whereupon the 
mother seized a heavy piece of wood, and hit 
the dog such a rap over the nose as sent it 
away howling. Then she spread a thick 
layer of soft moss on the wooden board. 
Above this she laid a very neat small blanket, 
about two feet in length. Upon this she 
placed the baby, which objected at first to 
go to bed, squalled a good deal, and kicked 
a little. The mother therefore took it up, 
turned it over, gave it one or two hearty 
slaps, and laid it down again. 

8 * 


90 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


This seemed to quiet it, for it afterwards 
lay straight out, and perfectly still, with its 
coal-black eyes staring out of its fat brown 
face, as if it was astonished at receiving 
such rough treatment. The mother next 
spread a little moss over the child, and above 
that she placed another small blanket, which 
she folded and tucked in very comfortably, 
keeping the little one’s arms close to its sides, 
and packing it all up, from neck to heels, so 
tightly that it looked more like the making 
up of a parcel than the wrapping up of a 
child. This done, she drew the scarlet cloth 
over it from each side of the cradle, and 
laced it down the front. When all was done, 
the infant looked liked an Egyptian mummy, 
nothing but the head being visible. 

The mother then leaned the cradle 
against the stem of a tree, and immediately 
one of the dogs ran against it, and knocked 
it over. Luckily, there was a wooden bar 
attached to the cradle, in front of the child’s 
face, which bar is placed there on purpose to 


AWAY IN' THE WILDERNESS. 


91 


guard against injury from such accidents, so 
that the bar came first to the ground, and 
thus prevented the flattening of the child’s 
nose, which, to say truth, was flat enough 
already ! 

Instead of scolding herself for her own 
carelessness, the Indian mother scolded the 
dog, and then hung the child on the branch 
of a tree, to keep it from further mischief. 

The next turn in the river revealed a 
large waterfall, up which it was impossible 
to paddle, so they prepared to make a por- 
tage. Before arriving at the foot of it, how- 
ever, Jasper landed Hey wood, to enable him 
to make a sketch, and then the two men 
shoved off, and proceeded to the foot of the 
fall. 

They were lying there in an eddy, con- 
sidering where was the best spot to land, 
when a loud shout drew their attention tow- 
ards the rushing water. Immediately after, 
a boat was seen to hover for a moment on 
the brink of the waterfall. This fall, 


92 


AWAY IN' THE WILDERNESS. 


although about ten or fifteen feet high, had 
such a large body of water rushing over it, 
that the river, instead of falling straight 
down, gushed over in a steep incline. Down 
this incline the boat now darted with the 
speed of lightning. It was full of men, two 
of whom stood erect, the one in the bow, the 
other in the stern, to control the movements 
of the boat. 

For a few seconds there was deep silence. 
The men held their breath as the boat leaped 
along with the boiling flood. There was a 
curling white wave at the foot of the fall. 
The boat cut through this like a knife, 
drenching her crew with spray. Next mo- 
ment she swept round into the eddy where 
the canoe was floating, and the men gave 
vent to a loud cheer of satisfaction at having 
run the fall in safety. 

But this was not the end of that exciting 
scene. Scarcely had they gained the land, 
when another boat appeared on the crest of 
the fall. Again a shout was given and a dash 







AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


93 


made. For one moment there was a strug- 
gle with the raging flood, and then a loud 
cheer as the second boat swept into the eddy 
in safety. Then a third and a fourth boat 
went through the same operation, and before 
the end of a quarter of an hour, six boats ran 
the fall. The bay at the foot of it, which 
had been so quiet and solitary when J asper 
and his friends arrived, became the scene of 
the wildest confusion and noise, as the men 
ran about with tremendous activity, making 
preparations to spend the night there. 

Some hauled might and main at the 
boats ; some carried up the provisions, fry- 
ing-pans, and kettles; others cut down dry 
trees with their axes, and cut them up into 
logs from five to six feet long and as thick as 
a man’s thigh. These were intended for six 
great fires, each boat’s crew requiring a fire 
to themselves. 

While this was going on, the principal 
guides and steersmen crowded round our 
three travellers, and plied them with ques- 


94 


AWAY m THE WILDERNESS. 


tions ; for it was so unusual to meet with 
strangers in that far-off wilderness, that a 
chance meeting of this kind was regarded as 
quite an important event. 

“ You’re hound for York Fort, no doubt,” 
said Jasper, addressing a tall handsome man 
of between forty and fifty, who was the prin- 
cipal guide. 

“Ay, that’s the end of our journey. 
You see we’re taking our furs down to the 
coast. Have you come from York Fort, 
friend ? ” 

“ Ho, Fve come all the way from Canada,” 
said Jasper, who thereupon gave them a short 
account of his voyage. 

“Well, Jasper, you’ll spend the night 
with us, won’t you? ” said” the guide. 

“ That will I, right gladly.” 

“ Come, then, I see the fires are begin- 
ning to burn. We may as well have a pipe 
and a chat while supper is getting ready.” 

The night was now closing in, and the 
scene in the forest, when the camp-fires be- 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


95 


gan to blaze, was one of tbe most stirring and 
romantic sights that could be witnessed in 
that land. The men of the brigade were 
some of them French-Canadians, some natives 
of the Orkney Islands, who had been hired 
and sent out there by the Hudson’s Bay 
Company, others were half-breeds, and a few 
were pure Indians. They were all dressed 
in what is called voyagev/r costume — coats or 
capotes of blue or gray cloth, with hoods to 
come over their heads at night, and fastened 
round their waists with scarlet worsted belts ; 
corduroy or gray trousers, gartered outside at 
the knees, moccasins, and caps. But most of 
them threw off their coats, and appeared in 
blue and red striped cotton shirts, which 
were open at the throat, exposing their 
broad, sun-burned, hairy chests. There was 
a variety, too, in the caps — some had Scotch 
bonnets, others red nightcaps, a few had tall 
hats, ornamented with gold and silver cords 
and tassels, and a good many wore no cover- 
ing at all except their own thickly-matted 


96 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


liair. Their faces were burned to every 
shade of red, brown, and black, from con- 
stant exposure, and they were strong as 
lions, wild as zebras, and frolicksome as 
kittens ! 

It was no wonder, then, that Heywood 
got into an extraordinary state of excite- 
ment and delight as he beheld these wild 
fine-looking men smoking their pipes and 
cooking their suppers, sitting, lying, and 
standing, talking and singing, and laughing, 
with teeth glistening and eyes glitter- 
ing in the red blaze of the fires — each of 
which fires was big enough to have roasted a 
whole ox ! 

The young artist certainly made good use 
of his opportunity. He went about from 
fire to fire, sketch-book in hand, sketching 
all the best-looking men in every possible 
attitude, sometimes singly, and sometimes 
in groups of five or six. He then went to 
the farthest end of the encampment, and, in 
the light of the last fire, made a picture of 
all the rest. 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 97 

The kettles were soon steaming. These 
hung from tripods erected over the fires. 
Their contents were flour and pemican, made 
into a thick soup called Rubbiboo. 

As pemican is a kind of food but little 
known in this country, I may as well de- 
scribe how it is made. In the first place, it 
consists of buffalo meat. The great plains, 
or prairies, of America, which are like huge 
downs or commons hundreds of miles in ex- 
tent, afford grass sufficient to support count- 
less herds of deer, wild horses, and bisons. 
The bisons are called by the people there 
buffaloes. The buffalo is somewhat like an 
enormous ox, but its hind quarters are 
smaller and its fore quarters much larger 
than those of the ox. Its hair is long and 
shaggy, particularly about the neck and 
shoulders, where it becomes almost a mane. 
Its horns are thick and short, and its look is 
very ferocious, but it is in reality a timid 
creature, and will only turn to attack man 
when it is hard pressed and cannot escape. 

9 


98 


AWAY m THE WILDERNESS. 


Its flesh is first-rate for food, even better than 
beef, and there is a large hump on its shoul- 
der, which is considered the best part of the 
animal. 

Such is the bison, or buffalo, from which 
pemican is made. 

When a man wishes to make a bag of 
pemican, he first of all kills a buffalo — not an 
easy thing to do by any means, for the buf- 
falo runs well. Having killed him, he skins 
him and cuts up the meat — also a difficult 
thing to do, especially if one is not used to 
that sort of work. Then he cuts the meat 
into thin layers, and hangs it up to dry. 
Dried meat will keep for a long time. It is 
packed up in bales and sent about that coun- 
try to be used as food. The next thing to 
be done is to make a bag of the raw hide of 
the buffalo. This is done with a glover’s 
needle, the raw sinews of the animal being 
used instead of thread. The bag is usually 
about three feet long, and eighteen inches 
broad, and the hair is left on the outside of 


AWAY m THE WILDERNESS. 


99 


it. A huge pot is now put on the fire, and 
the fat of the buffalo is melted down. Then 
the dried meat is pounded between two 
stones, until it is torn and broken up into 
shreds, after which it is put into the bag, the 
melted fat is poured over it, and the whole 
is well mixed. The last operation is to sew 
up the mouth of the bag and leave it to 
cool, after which the pemican is ready for 
use. 

In this state a bag of pemican will keep 
fresh and good for years. When the search 
was going on in the polar regions for the 
lost ships of Sir John Franklin, one of the 
parties hid some pemican in the ground, in- 
tending to return and take it up. They re- 
turned home, however, another way. Five 
years later some travellers discovered this 
pemican, and it was found, at that time, to 
be fit for food. Pemican is extensively used 
throughout Rupert’s Land, especially during 
summer, for at that season the brigades of 
boats start from hundreds of inland trad- 


100 


AWAY IN THE WILDEKNESS. 


ing-posts to take the furs to the coast for 
shipment to England, and pemican is found 
to he not only the best of food for these 
hard-working men, but exceedingly conven- 
ient to carry. 

Supper finished, the wild-looking fellows 
of this brigade took to their pipes, and threw 
fresh logs on the fires, which roared and 
crackled and shot up their forked tongues of 
flame, as if they wished to devour the forest. 
Then the song and the story went round, 
and men told of terrible fights with the red 
men of the prairies, and desperate encounters 
with grizzly bears in the Eocky Mountains, 
and narrow escapes among the rapids and 
falls, until the night was half spent. Then, 
one by one, each man wrapped himself in 
his blanket, stretched himself on the ground 
with his feet towards the fire and his head 
pillowed on a coat or a heap of brushwood, 
and went to sleep. 

Ere long they were all down, except one 
or two long-winded story tellers, who went 


AWAY IN THE WTLDEENESS. 


101 


on muttering to their pipes after their com- 
rades were asleep. Even these became tired 
at last of the sound of their own voices, 
and gradually every noise in the camp was 
hushed, except the crackling of the fires 
as they sank by degrees and went out, 
leaving the place in dead silence and total 
darkness. 

With the first peep of dawn the guide 
arose. In ten minutes after his first shout 
the whole camp was astir. The men yawned 
a good deal at first and grumbled a little, 
and stretched themselves violently, and 
yawned again. But soon they shook off 
laziness and sprang to their work. Pots, 
pans, kettles, and pemican bags were tossed 
into the boats, and in the course of half- 
an-hour they were ready to continue the 
voyage. 

Jasper stood beside the guide looking on 
at the busy scene. 

“ Heard you any news from the Saskatche- 
wan of late,” said he. 

9 * 


102 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


“ Not much,” replied the guide ; w there’s 
little stirring there just now, except among 
the Indians, who have been killing and scalp- 
ing each other as usual. But, by the way, 
that reminds me there has been a sort of row 
between the Indians and the Company’s peo- 
ple at Fort Erie. 

“ Fort Erie ! ” said J asper with a start. 

“ Ay, that’s the name o’ the fort, if I re- 
member right,” returned the guide. “ It 
seems that one o’ the men there, I think 
they call him Laroche — but what makes you 
start, friend Jasper? Do you know anything 
of this man ? ” 

“Yes, he’s a friend of mine. Go on, let 
me hear about it.” 

“ Well, there’s not much to tell,” resumed 
the guide. “ This Laroche, it would appear, 
has got into hot water. He has a daughter, 
a good lookin’ wench I’m told, and, better 
than that, a well-behaved one. One o’ the 
Indians had been impertinent to the girl, so 
old Laroche, who seems to be a fiery fellow, 


AWAY m THE WILDERNESS. 


103 


up fist, hit him on the nose, and knocked 
the savage flat on his back. A tremendous 
howl was set up, and knives and hatchets 
were flourished ; hut Mr. Pemberton, who 
is in charge of Fort Erie, ran in and paci- 
fied them. The Indian that was floored 
vows he’ll have the hair off old Laroche’s 
head.” 

This taking the hair off people’s heads, 
or scalping, as it is called, is a common prac- 
tice among the North American Indians. 
When a savage kills his enemy he runs his 
scalping-knife round the dead man’s head, 
seizes the hair with his left hand and tears 
the scalp off. Indeed this dreadful cruelty 
is sometimes practised before death has 
occurred. The scalp with its lock of hair is 
taken home by the victor, and hung up in 
his tent as a trophy of war. The man who 
can show the greatest number of scalps is 
considered the greatest warrior. The dresses 
of Indian warriors are usually fringed with 
human scalp-locks. 


104 AWAY IN THE WILDEENESS. 

“ That’s a bad business,” said Jasper, 
who was concerned to bear sncb news of 
bis intended fatber-in-law. “Do ye know 
tbe name o’ tbis red-skinned rascal ? ” 

“ I beard it mentioned,” said tbe guide, 
“ but I can’t remember it at tbis moment.” 

“ Tbe boats are ready to start,” said one 
of tbe steersmen, coming up just then. 

“ V ery good, let tbe men embark. Now, 
Jasper, we must part. Give us a sliake o’ 
your band. A pleasant trip to you.” 

“ The same to you, friend,” said Jasper, 
returning tbe guide’s squeeze. 

In another minute tbe boats were away. 

“ Now, friends, we shall start,” said Jas- 
per, breaking tbe deep silence which followed 
tbe departure of the brigade. 

“ Good,” said Arrowhead. 

“ I’m ready,” said Heywood. 

Tbe canoe was soon in tbe water, and 
tbe men in their places ; but they started 
that morning without a song. Arrowhead 
was never inclined to be noisy, Heywood 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


105 


was sleepy, and Jasper was rendered anx- 
ious by what be bad beard of bis friends 
at Fort Erie, so they paddled away in si- 
lence. 


CHAPTER IX. 


THE FORT, AND AN UNEXPECTED 
MEETING. 

We turn now to a very different scene. 
It is a small fort or trading-post on tlie banks 
of a stream which flows through the prairie. 
The fort is very much like the one which 
has been already described, but somewhat 
stronger ; and there are four block-houses or 
bastions, one at each comer, from which the 
muzzles of a few heavy guns may be seen 
protruding. 

The trees and bushes have been cleared 
away from around this fort, and the strips 
of forest-land which run along both sides of 
the river are not so thickly wooded as the 
country through which the reader has hith- 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


107 


erto been travelling. In front of the fort 
rolls the river. Immediately behind it lies 
tbe boundless prairie, which extends like a 
sea of grass, with scarcely a tree or bush 
upon it, as far as the eye can reach. This is 
Fort Erie. 

You might ride for many days over that 
prairie without seeing anything of the forest, 
except a clump of trees and bushes here and 
there, and now and then a little pond. The 
whole region is extremely beautiful : one 
that ought to fill the hearts of men with 
admiration and love of the bountiful God 
who formed it. But men in those regions, 
at the time I write of, thought little of beau- 
ties of nature, and cared nothing for the 
goodness of God. At least this may be truly 
said of the red-skinned owners of the soil. It 
was otherwise with some of the white people 
who dwelt there. 

Three weeks had passed away since the 
night spent by our friends with the brigade. 
It was now a beautiful evening, a little after 


108 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


sunset. The day’s work at the fort had 
been finished, and the men were amusing 
themselves by racing their horses, of which 
fine animals there were great numbers at 
Fort Erie. 

Just a little after the sun had gone down, 
three horsemen appeared on the distant prai- 
rie and came bounding at full gallop towards 
the fort. They were our friends Jasper, 
Heywood, and Arrowhead. These adventur- 
ous travellers had reached a fort further 
down the river two days before, and having 
been supplied with horses, had pushed for- 
ward by way of the plains. 

On entering the belt of woods close to the 
fort, the horsemen reined in, and rode among 
the trees more cautiously. 

“ Here’s the end of our journey at last,” 
cried Jasper, on whose bronzed countenance 
there was a deep flush of excitement and a 
look of anxiety. 

Just as he said this, Jasper’s heart ap- 
peared to leap into his throat and almost 


AWAY IN THE 'WILDERNESS. 


109 


choked him. Pulling up suddenly, he 
swallowed his heart, with some difficulty, 
and said : 

“ Hold, on lads. I’ll ride round to the 
fort by the way of the river, for reasons of 
my own. Push on, Hey wood, with the In- 
dian, and let Mr. Pemberton know I’m com- 
ing. See, I will give you the packet of let- 
ters we were asked to carry from the fort be- 
low. How, make haste.” 

Heywood, though a little surprised at 
this speech, and at the manner of his friend, 
took the packet in silence and rode swiftly 
away, followed by the Indian. When they 
were gone, Jasper dismounted, tied his horse 
to a tree, and w r alked quickly into the woods 
in another direction. 

How this mysterious proceeding is not 
difficult to explain. Jasper had caught sight 
of a female figure walking under the trees at 
a considerable distance from the spot where 
he had pulled up. He knew that there were 
none but Indian women at Fort Erie at that 
10 


110 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


time, and that, therefore, the only respecta- 
bly dressed female at the place mnst needs 
he his own Marie Laroche. Overjoyed at 
the opportunity thus unexpectedly afforded 
him of meeting her alone, he hastened for- 
ward with a beating heart. 

Marie was seated on the stump of a fallen 
tree when the hunter came up. She was a 
fair, beautiful woman of about five-and-twen- 
ty, with an air of modesty about her which 
attracted love, yet repelled familiarity. 
Many a good-looking and well-doing young 
fellow had attempted to gain the heart of 
Marie during the last two years, but without 
success — for this good reason, that her heart 
had been gained already. 

She was somewhat startled when a man 
appeared thus suddenly before her. Jasper 
stood in silence for a few moments, with his 
arms crossed upon his breast, and gazed 
earnestly into her face. 

As he did not speak, she said — “ You ap- 
pear to be a stranger here. Have you arrived 
lately ? ” 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


Ill 


Jasper was for a moment astonished that 
she did not at once recognize him, and yet 
he had no reason to be surprised. Besides 
the alteration that two years sometimes 
makes in a man, Jasper had made a consid- 
erable alteration on himself. "When Marie 
last saw him, he had been in the habit of 
practising the foolish and unnatural custom 
of shaving ; and he had carried it to such an 
extreme that he shaved off everything — whis- 
kers, beard, and moustache. But within a 
year he had been induced by a wise friend 
to change his opinion on this subject. That 
friend had suggested, that as Providence had 
caused hair to grow on his cheeks, lips, and 
chin, it was intended to be worn, and that 
he had no more right to shave his face than 
a Chinaman had to shave his head. Jasper 
had been so far convinced, that he had suf- 
fered his whiskers to grow. These were now 
large and bushy, and had encroached so 
much on his chin as to have become almost 
a beard. Besides this, not having shaved 


112 


AWAY m THE WILDERNESS. 


any part of his face during the last three 
weeks, there was little of it visible ex- 
cept his eyes, forehead, and cheek-bones. 
All the rest was more or less covered with 
black hair. 

No wonder, then, that Marie, who be- 
lieved him to be two thousand miles away 
at that moment, did not recognize him in 
the increasing darkness of evening. The 
lover at once understood this, and he re- 
solved to play the part of a stranger. He 
happened to have the power of changing his 
voice — a power possessed by many people — 
and, trusting to the increasing gloom to con- 
ceal him, and to the fact that he was the last 
person in the world whom Marie might ex- 
pect to see there, he addressed her as fol- 
lows : 

“ I am indeed a stranger here ; at least 
I have not been at the post for a very long 
time. I have just reached the end of a long 
journey.” 

“ Indeed,” said the girl, interested by the 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


113 


stranger’s grave manner. “ May I ask where 
you have come from \ ” 

“ I have come all the way from Canada, 
young woman, and I count myself lucky in 
meeting with such a pleasant face at the end 
of my journey.” 

“ From Canada ! ” exclaimed Marie, be- 
coming still more interested in the stranger, 
and blushing deeply as she asked — “ You 
have friends there, no doubt ? ” 

“Ay, a few,” said Jasper. 

“ And what has brought you such a long 
way into this wild wilderness % ” asked Marie, 
sighing as she thought of the hundreds of 
miles that lay between Fort Erie and 
Canada. 

“ I have come here to get me a wife,” re- 
plied Jasper. 

“ That is strange,” said the girl, smiling, 
“ for there are few but Indian women here. 
A stout hunter like you might find one nearer 
home, I should think.” 

Here Marie paused, for she felt that on 
10 * 


114 


AWAY m THE WILDERNESS. 


such a subject she ought not to converse with 
a stranger. Yet she could not help adding, 
“ But perhaps, as you say you have been in 
this part of the world before, you may have 
some one in your mind ? ” 

“ I am engaged,” said Jasper abruptly. 

On hearing this, Marie felt more at her 
ease, and, being of a very sympathetic na- 
ture, she at once courted the confidence of 
the stranger. 

“ May I venture to ask her name ? ” said 
Marie, with an arch smile. 

“ I may not tell,” replied Jasper ; “ I have 
a comrade who is entitled to know this secret 
before any one else. Perhaps you may 
have heard of him, for he was up in these 
parts two years agone. His name is Jasper 
Derry.” 

The blood rushed to Marie’s temples on 
hearing the name, and she turned her face 
away to conceal her agitation, while, in a low 
voice, she said — 

“ Is Jasper Derry, then, your intimate 
friend % ” 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


115 


“ That is he — a very intimate friend in- 
deed. But yon appear to know him.” 

“ Yes, I — I know him — I have seen him. 
I hope he is well,” said Marie; and she 
list&ied with a heating heart for the an- 
swer, though she still turned her face away. 

“ Oh ! he’s well enough,” said Jasper ; 
“sickness don’t often trouble him. He’s 
going to be married.” 

Had a bullet struck the girl’s heart she 
could not have turned more deadly pale than 
she did on hearing this. She half rose from 
the tree stump, and would have fallen to the 
ground insensible, had not Jasper caught her 
in his arms. 

“My own Marie,” said he fervently, 
“forgive me, dearest; forgive my folly, 
my wickedness, in deceiving you in this 
fashion. Oh, what a fool I am ! ” he added, 
as the poor girl still hung heavily in his 
grasp — “ speak to me, Marie, my own dar- 
ling.” 

Whether it was the earnestness of his 


116 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


voice, or tlie kiss which, he printed on her 
forehead, or the coolness of the evening air, 
I know not, hut certain it is that Marie re- 
covered in the course of a few minutes, and, 
on being convinced that Jasper really*was 
her old lover, she resigned herself, wisely, to 
her fate, and held such an uncommonly long 
conversation with the hold hunter, that the 
moon was up and the stars were out before 
they turned their steps towards the Fort. 

“Why, Jasper Derry,” cried Mr. Pem- 
berton, as the hunter entered the hall of Fort 
Erie, “ where have you been. Pve been ex- 
pecting you every moment for the last two 
hours.” 

“Well, you see, Mr. Pemberton, I just 
went down the river a short bit to see an old 
friend and I was kep’ longer than I expected,” 
said Jasper, with a cool grave face, as he 
grasped and shook the hand which was held 
out to him. 

“ Ah ! I see, you hunters are more like 
brothers than friends. No doubt you went 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


m 


to smoke a pipe with Hawkeye, or to have 
a chat with the Muskrat about old times,” 
said the fur-trader, mentioning the names 
of two Indians who were celebrated as be- 
ing the best hunters in the neighbourhood, 
and who had been bosom friends of Jasper 
when he resided there two years before. 

“ No , I’ve not yet smoked a pipe with 
Hawkeye, neither have I seen Muskrat, but 
I certainly have had a pretty long chat 
with one o’ my old friends,” answered Jas- 
per, while a quiet smile played on his face. 

“ Well, come along and have a pipe and 
chat with me. I hope you count me one of 
your friends too,” said Mr. Pemberton, con- 
ducting Jasper into an inner room, where he 
found Heywood and Arrowhead seated at a 
table, doing justice to a splendid supper of 
buffalo-tongues, venison-steaks, and marrow- 
bones. “ Here are your comrades, you see, 
hard at work. It’s lucky you came to-night, 
Jasper, for I intend to be off to-morrow 
morning, by break of day, on a buffalo hunt. 


118 


AWAY IN THE WILDEKNESS. 


If you had been a few hours later of arriving, 
I should have missed you. Come, will you 
eat or smoke ? ” 

“ I’ll eat first, if you have no objection,” 
said Jasper, “ and smoke afterwards.” 

“ Yery good. Sit down, then, and get 
to work. Meanwhile, I’ll go and look after 
the horses that we intend to take with us 
to-morrow. Of course you’ll accompany us, 
Jasper?” 

“ I’ll be very glad, and so will Arrow- 
head, there. There’s nothing he likes so 
much as a chase after a buffalo, unless, it 
may be, the eating of him. But as for my 
friend and comrade Mr. Heywood, he must 
speak for himself.” 

“ I will be delighted to go,” answered 
the artist, “ nothing will give me more pleas- 
ure ; but I fear my steed is too much ex- 
hausted to — ” 

“Oh! make your mind easy on that 
score,” said the fur-trader, interrupting him. 
“ I have plenty of capital horses, and can 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


119 


mount the whole of you, so that’s settled. 
And now, friends, do justice to your supper, 
I shall be back before you have done.” 

So saying, Mr. Pemberton left the room, 
and our three friends, being unusually hun- 
gry, fell vigorously to work on the good 
cheer of Fort Erie. 


CHAPTER X. 


BTJFFALO-HUNTING ON THE PRAIRIES. 

Xext day most of the men of Fort Erie, 
headed by Mr. Pemberton, rode away into 
the prairies on a buffalo-hunt. Jasper would 
willingly have remained with Marie at the 
fort, but having promised to go, he would 
not now draw back. 

The band of horsemen rode for three 
hours, at a quick pace, over the grassy plains, 
without seeing anything. Jasper kept close 
beside his friend old Laroche, while Hey- 
wood rode and conversed chiefly with Mr. 
Pemberton. There were about twenty men 
altogether, armed with guns, and mounted 
on their best buffalo-runners, as they styled 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 121 

the horses which were trained to hunt the 
buffalo. Many of these steeds had been wild 
horses, caught by the Indians, broken-in, and 
sold by them to the fur-traders. 

u I have seldom ridden so long without 
meeting buffaloes,” observed Mr. Pemberton, 
as the party galloped to the top of a ridge of 
land, from which they could see the plains 
far and wide around them. 

“ There they are at last,” said Heywood 
eagerly, pointing to a certain spot on the far- 
off horizon, where living creatures of some 
sort were seen moving. 

“ That must be a band o’ red-skins,” said 
Jasper, who trotted up at this moment with 
the rest of the party. 

“ They are Sauteaux,” * observed Ar- 
rowhead quietly. 

“ You must have good eyes, friend,” said 
Pemberton, applying a small pocket-telescope 
to his eye ; “ they are indeed Sauteaux, I see 


* This word is pronounced Sotoes in the plural ; Sotoe 
in the singular. 

11 


122 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


by their dress, and they have observed us, 
for they are coming straight this way, like 
the wind.” 

u Will they come as enemies or friends?” 
inquired Heywood. 

“ As friends, I have no doubt,” replied 
the fur-trader. “ Come, lads, we will ride 
forward to meet them.” 

In a short time the two parties of horse- 
men met. They approached almost at full 
speed, as if each meant to ride the other 
down, and did not rein up until they were 
so close that it seemed impossible to avoid a 
shock. 

“ Have you seen the buffaloes lately? ” in- 
quired Pemberton, after the first salutation 
had passed. 

“ Yes, there are large bands not an hour’s 
ride from this. Some of our young warriors 
have remained to hunt. We are going to 
the fort to trade.” 

“ Good ; you will find tobacco enough 
there to keep you smoking till I return 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


123 


with fresh meat,” said Pemberton, in the 
native tongue, which he could speak like 
an Indian. “I’ll not be long away. Fare- 
well.” 

USTo more words were wasted. The trad- 
ers galloped away over the prairie, and the 
Indians, of whom there were about fifteen, 
dashed off in the direction of the fort. 

These Indians were a very different set 
of men from those whom I have already in- 
troduced to the reader in a former chapter. 
There are many tribes of Indians in the 
wilderness of Rupert’s Land, and some of the 
tribes are at constant war with each other. 
But in order to avoid confusing the reader, 
it may be as well to divide the Indian race 
into two great classes — namely, those who 
inhabit the woods, and those who roam over 
the plains or prairies. As a general rule, 
the thick-wood Indians are a more peaceful 
set of men than the prairie Indians. They 
are few in number, and live in a land full of 
game, where there is far more than enough 


124 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


of room for all of them. Their mode of 
travelling in canoes, and on foot, is slow, so 
that the different tribes do not often meet, 
and they have no occasion to quarrel. They 
are, for the most part, a quiet and harmless 
race of savages, and being very dependent 
on the fur-traders for the necessaries of life, 
they are on their good behaviour, and seldom 
do much mischief. 

It is very different with the plain-In- 
dians. These savages have numbers of fine 
horses, and live in a splendid open country, 
which is well-stocked with deer and buffa- 
loes, besides other game. They are bold 
riders, and scour over the country in all di- 
rections, consequently the different tribes 
often come across each other when out 
hunting. Quarrels and fights are the re- 
sults, so that these savages are naturally a 
fierce and warlike race. They are independ- 
ent too ; for although they get their guns 
and ammunition and other necessaries from 
the traders, they can manage to live without 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 125 

these things if need he. They can clothe 
themselves in the skins of wild animals, and 
when they lose their guns, or wet their pow- 
der, they can kill game easily with their own 
bows and arrows. 

It was a hand of these fellows that now 
went galloping towards Fort Erie, with the 
long manes and tails of the half-wild horses 
and the scalp-locks on their dresses and 
their own long black hair streaming in the 
wind. 

Pemberton and his party soon came up 
with the young Indians who had remained 
to chase the buffaloes. ITe found them shel- 
tered behind a little mound, making prepara- 
tion for an immediate attack on the animals, 
which, however, were not yet visible to the 
men from the fort. 

“ I do believe they’ve seen buffaloes on 
the other side of that mound,” said Pember- 
ton, as he rode forward. 

He was right. The Indians, of whom 
there were six, well mounted and armed with 
11 * 


126 


AWAY IN' THE WILDERNESS. 


strong short hows, pointed to the mound, and 
said that on the other side of it there were 
hundreds of buffaloes. 

As the animals were so numerous, no 
objection was made to the fur-traders joining 
in the hunt, so in another moment the united 
party leaped from their horses and prepared 
for action. Some wiped out and carefully 
loaded their guns, others examined the prim- 
ing of their pieces, and chipped the edges off 
the flints to make sure of their not missing 
fire. All looked to the girths of their sad- 
dles, and a few threw off their coats and 
rolled their shirt-sleeves up to their shoulders, 
as if they were going to undertake hard and 
bloody work. 

Mr. Pemberton took in hand to look after 
our friend Hey wood, the rest were well quali- 
fied to look after themselves. In five min- 
utes they were all remounted and rode quiet- 
ly to the brow of the mound. 

Here an interesting sight presented it- 
self. The whole plain was covered with 


AWAY IN THE WILDEKNESS. 


127 


the huge unwieldy forms of the buffaloes. 
They were scattered about, singly and in 
groups, grazing or playing or lying down, 
and in on or two places some of the 
bulls were engaged in single combat, paw- 
ing the earth, goring each other, and bellow- 
furiously. 

After one look, the hunters dashed down 
the hill and were in the midst of the aston- 
ished animals almost before they could raise 
their heads to look at them. Now com- 
menced a scene which it is not easy to de- 
scribe correctly. Each man had selected his 
own group of animals, so that the whole par- 
ty was scattered in a moment. 

“ Follow me,” cried Pemberton to Hey- 
wood, “ observe what I do, and then go try 
it yourself.” 

The fur-trader galloped at full speed tow- 
ards a group of buffaloes which stood right 
before him, about two hundred yards off. 
He carried a single-barrelled gun with a flint 
lock in his right hand and a bullet in his 


128 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


mouth, ready to reload. The buffaloes 
gazed at him for one moment in stupid sur- 
prise, and then, with a toss of their heads 
and a whisk of their tails, they turned and 
fled. At first they ran with a slow awkward 
gait, like pigs ; and to one who did not know 
their powers, it would seem that the fast- 
running horses of the two men would quickly 
overtake them. But as they warmed to the 
work their speed increased, and it required 
the horses to get up their best paces to over- 
take them. 

After a furious gallop, Pemberton’s horse 
ran close up alongside of a fine-looking buf- 
falo cow — so close that he could almost touch 
the side of the animal with the point of his 
gun. Dropping the rein, he pointed the 
gun without putting it to his shoulder, and 
fired. The ball passed through the animal’s 
heart, and it dropt like a stone. At the same 
moment Pemberton flung his cap on the 
ground beside it, so that he might afterwards 
claim it as his own. 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


129 


The well-trained horse did not shy at the 
shot, neither did it check its pace for a mo- 
ment, hut ran straight on and soon placed its 
master alongside of another buffalo cow. In 
the mean time, Pemberton loaded like light- 
ning. He let the reins hang loose, knowing 
that the horse understood his work, and, 
seizing the powder-horn at his side with his 
right hand, drew the wooden stopper with 
his teeth, and poured a charge of powder 
into his left — guessing the quantity, of 
course. Pouring this into the gun, he 
put the muzzle to his mouth, and spat the 
ball into it, struck the butt on the pom- 
mell of the saddle to send it down, as 
well as to drive the powder into the pan, 
and taking his chance of the gun priming 
itself, he aimed as before, and pulled the 
trigger. The explosion followed, and a 
second buffalo lay dead upon the plain, with 
a glove beside it to show to whom it be- 
longed. 

Scenes similar to this were being enacted 


130 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


all over the plain, with this difference, that 
the bad or impatient men sometimes fired 
too soon and missed their mark, or by only 
wounding the animals, infuriated them and 
caused them to run faster. One or two ill- 
trained horses shied when the guns were 
fired, and left their riders sprawling on the 
ground. Others stumbled into badger-holes 
and rolled over. The Indians did their work 
well. They were used to it, and . did not 
bend their bows until their horses almost 
brushed the reeking sides of the huge brutes. 
Then they drew to the arrow heads, and, 
leaning forward, buried the shafts up to the 
feathers. The arrow is said to be even more 
deadly than the bullet. 

Already the plain was strewn with dead 
or dying buffaloes, and the ground seemed 
to tremble with the thunder of the tread of 
the affrighted animals. Jasper had £ dropt ’ 
three, and Arrowhead had slain two, yet the 
pace did not slacken — still the work of death 
went on. 


AWAY IN THE WILDEKNESS. 


131 


Having seen Pemberton sboot another 
animal, Heywood became fired with a desire 
to try bis own band, so be edged away from 
bis companion. Seeing a very large mon- 
strous-looking buffalo flying away by itself 
at no great distance, be turned bis borse tow- 
ards it, grasped his gun, shook the reins, and 
gave chase. 

How poor Heywood did not know that 
the animal he bad made up bis mind to kill 
was a tough old bull ; neither did be know 
that a bull is bad to eat, and dangerous to 
follow ; and, worse than all, he did not know 
that when a bull bolds bis tail stiff and 
straight up in the air, it is a sign that be is 
in a tremendous rage, and that the wisest 
thing a man can do is to let him alone. 
Heywood, in fact, knew nothing, so be 
rushed blindly on bis fate. At first the bull 
did not raise bis tail, but, as the rider drew 
near, be turned his enormous shaggy bead a 
little to one side, and looked at him out of 
the corner of bis wicked little eye. When 


132 


AWAY m THE WILDEKNESS. 


Heywood came within a few yards and, in 
attempting to take aim, fired off his gnn by 
accident straight into the face of the snn, the 
tail went np and the bull began to growl. 
The ferocious aspect of the creature alarmed 
the artist, but he had made up his mind to 
kill it, so he attempted to reload, as Pem- 
berton had done. He succeeded, and as he 
was about to turn his attention again to the 
bull, he observed one of the men belonging 
to the fort making towards him. This man 
saw and knew the artist’s danger, and meant 
to warn him, but his horse unfortunately 
put one of its feet into a hole, and sent him 
flying head over heels through the air. Hey- 
wood was now so close to the bull that he 
had to prepare for another shot. 

The horse he rode was a thoroughly good 
buffalo-runner. It knew the dangerous char- 
acter of the bull, if its rider did not, and 
kept its eye watchfully upon it. At last the 
bull lost patience, and suddenly wheeling 
round, dashed at the horse, but the trained 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


133 


animal sprang nimbly to one side, and got 
ont of tbe way. Heywood was all but 
thrown. He clutched the mane, however, 
and held on. The bull then continued its 
flight. 

Determined not to be caught in this way 
again, the artist seized the reins, and ran the 
horse close alongside of the buffalo, whose 
tail was now as stiff as a poker. Once more 
the bull turned suddenly round. Heywood 
pulled the reins violently, thus confusing 
his steed, which ran straight against the buf- 
falo’s big hairy forehead. It was stopped as 
violently as if it had run against the side of 
a house. But poor Heywood was not 
stopped. He left the saddle like a rocket, 
flew right over the bull’s back, came down 
on his face, ploughed up the land with his 
nose — and learned a lesson from experience ! 

Fortunately the spot on which he fell 
happened to be one of those soft muddy 
places in which the buffaloes are fond of 
rolling their huge bodies in the heat of sum- 
12 


134 


AWAY m THE WILDERNESS. 


mer, so that, with the exception of a bruised 
and dirty face, and badly-soiled clothes, the 
bold artist was none the worse for his adven- 
ture. 






CHAPTER XI. 


WINTER — SLEEPING IN THE SNOW — 

A NIGHT ALARM. 

Summer passed away, autumn passed 
away, and winter came. So did Christmas, 
and so did Jasper’s marriage-day. 

Now the reader must understand that 
there is a wonderful difference between the 
winter in that part of the North American 
wilderness called Rupert’s Land, and winter 
in our own happy island. 

Winter out there is from six to eight 
months long. The snow varies from three 
to four feet deep, and in many places it 
drifts to fifteen or twenty feet deep. The 
ice on the lakes and rivers is sometimes 
above six feet thick ; and the salt sea itself, 


136 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


in Hudson’s Bay, is frozen over to a great 
extent. Nothing like a thaw takes place for 
many months at a time, and the frost is so 
intense that it is a matter of difficulty to 
prevent one’s-self from being frost-bitten. 
The whole country, during these long win- 
ter months, appears white, desolate, and 
silent. 

Yet a good many of the birds and ani- 
mals keep moving about, though most of 
them do so at night, and do not often meet 
the eye of man. The hear goes to sleep all 
winter in a hole, but the wolf and the fox 
prowl about the woods at night. Ducks, 
geese, and plover no longer enliven the 
marshes with their wild cries; but white 
grouse, or ptarmigan, fly about in immense 
flocks, and arctic hares make many tracks in 
the deep snow. Still these are quiet crea- 
tures, and they scarcely break the deep dead 
silence of the forests in winter. 

At this period the Indian and the fur- 
trader wrap themselves in warm dresses of 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


137 


deer-skin, lined witli the thickest flannel, 
and spend their short days in trapping and 
shooting. At night the Indian piles logs on 
his fire to keep ont the frost, and adds to 
the warmth of his skin-tent by heaping snow 
up the ontside of it all ronnd. The fur- 
trader puts double window-frames and dou- 
ble panes of glass in his windows, puts on 
double doors, and heats his rooms with cast- 
iron stoves. 

But do what he will, the fur-trader can- 
not keep out the cold altogether. He may 
heat the stove red-hot if he will, yet the 
water in the basins and jugs in the corner 
of his room will be frozen, and his breath 
settles on the window-panes, and freezes 
there so thickly that it actually dims the 
light of the sun. This crust on the windows 
inside is sometimes an inch thick ! 

Thermometers in England are usually 
filled with quicksilver. In Rupert’s Land 
quicksilver would be frozen half the winter, 
so spirit of wine is used instead, because that 
12 * 


138 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


liquid will not freeze with any ordinary de- 
gree of cold. Here, the thermometer some- 
times falls as low as zero. Out there it does 
not rise so high as zero during the greater 
part of the winter, and it is often as low as 
twenty, thirty, and even fifty degrees below 
zero. 

If the wind should blow when the cold 
is intense, no man dare face it — he would be 
certain to be frost-bitten. The parts of the 
body that are most easily frozen are the ears, 
the chin, the cheek-bones, the nose, the heels, 
fingers, and toes. The freezing of any part 
begins with a pricking sensation. When this 
occurs at the point of your nose, it is time 
to give earnest attention to that feature, else 
you run the risk of having it shortened. 
The best way to recover it is to rub it 
well, and to keep carefully away from the 
fire. 

The likest thing to a frost-bite is a burn. 
In fact, the two things are almost the same. 
In both cases the skin or flesh is destroyed, 


AWAY IN THE WILDEKNESS. 


139 


and becomes a sore. In the one case it is 
destroyed by fire, in the other by frost ; bnt 
in both it is painful and dangerous, accord- 
ing to the depth of the frost-bite or the burn. 
Many a poor fellow loses joints of his toes 
and fingers — some have even lost their 
hands and feet by frost. Many have lost 
their lives. But the most common loss is 
the loss of the skin of the point of the nose, 
cheek-bones, and chin — a loss which is indeed 
painful, but can be replaced by nature in the 
course of time. 

Of course curious appearances are pro- 
duced by such intense cold. On going out 
into the open air, the breath settles on the 
breast, whiskers, and eyebrows in the shape 
of hoar-frost ; and men who go out in the 
morning for a ramble with black or brown 
locks, return at night with what appears to 
be gray hair ! sometimes with icicles hanging 
about their faces. Horses and cattle there 
are seldom without icicles hanging from their 
lips and noses in winter. 


140 


AWAY IK THE WILDEKNESS. 


Poor Mr. Pemberton was much troubled 
in tbis way. He was a fat and heavy man, 
and apt to perspire freely. When he went 
out to shoot in winter, the moisture trickled 
down his face and turned his whiskers into 
two little blocks of ice ; and he used to be 
often seen, after a hard day’s walk, sitting 
for a long time beside the stove, holding his 
cheeks to the fire, and gently coaxing the 
icy blocks to let go their hold ! 

But for all this, the long winter of those 
regions is a bright enjoyable season. The 
cold is not felt so much as one would expect, 
because it is not damp, and the weather is 
usually bright and sunny. 

From what I have said, the reader will 
understand that summer in those regions is 
short and very hot ; the winter long and very 
cold. Both seasons have their own peculiar 
enjoyments, and, to healthy men, both are 
extremely agreeable. 

I have said that Jasper’s marriage-day had 
arrived. Hew Year’s Day was fixed for his 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


141 


union with the fair and gentle Marie. As 
is usual at this festive season of the year, it 
was arranged that a ball should he given at 
the fort in the large hall to all the people 
that chanced to he there at the time. 

Old Laroche had been sent to a small hut 
a long day’s march from the fort, where he 
was wont to spend his time in trapping foxes. 
He was there alone, so, three days before 
Hew Year’s Hay, Jasper set out with Arrow- 
. head to visit the old man, and bear him com- 
pany on his march back to the fort. 

There are no roads in that country. Trav- 
ellers have to plod through the wilderness as 
they best can. It may not have occurred to 
my reader that it would be a difficult thing 
to walk for a day through snow so deep, that, 
at every step the traveller would sink the 
whole length of his leg. The truth is, that 
travelling in Rupert’s Land in winter would 
be impossible but for a machine which en- 
ables men to walk on the surface of the snow 
without sinking more than a few inches. 


142 


AWAY m THE WILDEENESS. 


This machine is the snow-shoe. Snow-shoes 
vary in size and form in different parts of the 
country, but they are all used for the same pur- 
pose. Some are long and narrow ; others are 
nearly round. They vary in size from three 
to six feet in length, and from eight to twenty 
inches in breadth. They are extremely light 
— made of a framework of hard wood, and 
covered with a network of deer-skin, which, 
while it prevents the wearer from sinking 
more than a few inches, allows any snow that 
may chance to fall on the top of the shoe to 
pass through the netting. The value of this 
clumsy-looking machine may be imagined 
when I say that men with them will easily 
walk twenty, thirty, and even forty miles 
across a country over which they could not 
walk three miles without such helps. 

It was a bright, calm, frosty morning 
when Jasper and his friend set out on their 
short journey. The sun shone brilliantly, 
and the hoar-frost sparkled on the trees and 
bushes, causing them to appear as if they had 









V*.’ 

’ lS f# 

SJB338 

»l\l* * 
t J 1 ' 

jfl 



• iV-’TS 



THE SNOW-SHOE JOURNEY. 



AWAY IN THE WILDEBNESS. 


143 


been covered with millions of diamonds. The 
breath of the two men came from their 
mouths like clouds of steam. Arrowhead 
wore the round snow-shoes which go by the 
name of bear’s paws — he preferred these to 
any others. Jasper wore the snow-shoes pe- 
culiar to the Chippewayan Indians. They 
were nearly as long as himself, and turned 
up at the point. Both men were dressed 
alike, in the yellow leathern costume of win- 
ter. The only difference being that Jasper 
wore a fur cap, while Arrowhead sported a 
cloth head-piece that covered his neck and 
shoulders, and was ornamented with a pair of 
horns. 

All day the two men plodded steadily over 
the country. Sometimes they were toiling 
through deep snow in wooded places, sinking 
six or eight inches in spite of their snow-shoes. 
At other times, they were passing swiftly over 
the surface of the open plains, where the snow 
was beaten so hard by exposure to the sun and 
wind that the shoes only just broke the crust 


144 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


and left their outlines behind. Then they 
reached a bend of the river, where they had 
again to plod heavily through the woods on 
its banks, until they came out upon its frozen 
surface. Here the snow w r as so hard, that 
they took off their snow-shoes and ran briskly 
along without them for a long space. 

Thus they travelled all day, without one 
halt, and made such good use of their time, 
that they arrived at the log-hut of old Laroche 
early in the evening. 

“ Well met, son-in-law, that is to be” cried 
the stout old man, heartily, as the two hunters 
made their appearance before the low door- 
way of his hut, which was surrounded by 
trees and almost buried in snow. “ If you 
had been half an hour later, I would have met 
ye in the woods.” 

“ How so, father-in-law, that is to be” said 
Jasper, “were ye goin’ out to your traps so 
late as this ? ” 

“ Hay, man, but I was startin’ for the fort. 
It’s a long way, as you know, and my old limbs 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


145 


are not just so supple as yours. I thought I 
would travel to-night, and sleep in the woods, 
so as to be there in good time to-morrow. 
But come in, come in, and rest you. I war- 
rant me you’ll not feel inclined for more 
walkin’ to-night.” 

“FTow my name is not Jasper Derry if I 
enter your hut this night,” said the hunter 
stoutly. “If I could not turn round and 
walk straight back to the fort this night, 
I would not be worthy of your daughter, 
old man. So come along with you. What 
say you, Arrowhead ; shall we go straight 
back ? ” 

“ Good,” answered the Indian. 

“Well, well,” cried Laroche, laughing, 
“ lead the way, and I will follow in your 
footsteps. It becomes young men to beat 
the track, and old ones to take it easy.” 

The three men turned their faces towards 
Fort Erie, and were soon far away from the 
log hut. They walked steadily and silently 
along, without once halting, until the night 
13 


146 AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 

became so dark that it was difficult to avoid 
stumps and bushes. Then they prepared to 
encamp in the snow. 

Now it may seem to many people a very 
disagreeable idea, that of sleeping out in 
snow, but one who has tried it can assure 
them that it is not so bad as it seems. No 
doubt, when Jasper halted in the cold dark 
woods, and said, “I think this will be a 
pretty good place to sleep,” any one unac- 
quainted with the customs of that country 
would have thought the man was jesting or 
mad ; for, besides being very dismal, in con- 
sequence of its being pitch dark, it was ex- 
cessively cold, and snow was falling steadily 
and softly on the ground. But Jasper knew 
what he was about, and so did the others. 
Without saying a word, the three men flung 
down their bundles of provisions, and each 
set to work to make the encampment. Of 
course they had to work in darkness so thick 
that even the white snow could scarcely be 


seen. 


AWAY m THE WILDERNESS, 


147 


First of all they selected a tree, the 
branches of which were so thick and spread- 
ing as to form a good shelter from the falling 
snow. Here Jasper and Laroche used their 
snow-shoes as shovels, while Arrowhead plied 
his axe and soon cut enough of firewood for 
the night. He also cut a large bundle of 
small branches for bedding. A space of 
about twelve feet long, by six broad, was 
cleared at the foot of the tree in half an hour. 
But the snow was so deep that they had to 
dig down four feet before they reached the 
turf. As the snow taken out of the hole 
was thrown up all round it, the walls rose to 
nearly seven feet. 

Arrowhead next lighted a roaring fire at 
one end of this cleared space, the others 
strewed the branches over the space in front 
of it, and spread their blankets on the top, 
after which the kettle was put on to boil, 
buffalo steaks were stuck up before the fire 
to roast, and the men then lay down to rest 
and smoke, while supper was preparing. 


148 


AWAY m THE WILDERNESS. 


The intense cold prevented the fire from 
melting the snowy walls of this encampment, 
which shone and sparkled in the red blaze 
like pink marble studded all over with dia- 
monds, while the spreading branches formed 
a ruddy-looking ceiling. When they had 
finished their supper, the heat of the fire and 
the heat of their food made the travellers 
feel quite warm and comfortable, in spite of 
John Frost ; and when they at last wrapped 
their blankets round them and laid their 
heads together on the branches, they fell 
into a sleep more sound and refreshing than 
they would have enjoyed had they gone to 
rest in a warm house upon the best bed in 
England. 

But when the fire went out, about the 
middle of the night, the cold became so in- 
tense that they were awakened by it ; so Jas- 
per rose and blew up the fire, and the other 
two sat up and filled their pipes, while their 
teeth chattered in their heads. Soon the 
blaze and the smoke warmed them, and 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


149 


again they lay down to sleep comfortably 
till morning. 

Before daybreak, however, Arrowhead — 
who never slept so soundly but that he could 
be wakened by the slightest unusual noise — 
slowly raised his head and touched Jasper on 
the shoulder. The hunter was too well 
trained to the dangers of the wilderness to 
start up or speak. He uttered no word, but 
took up his gun softly and looked in the 
direction in which the Indian’s eyes gazed. 
A small red spot in the ashes served to reveal 
a pair of glaring eye-balls among the bushes. 

“ A wolf,” whispered J asper, cocking his 
gun. 

“ Ho ; a man,” said Arrowhead. 

At the sound of the click of the lock the 
object in the bushes moved. Jasper leaped 
up in an instant, pointed his gun, and shouted 
sternly — 

“ Stand fast and speak, or I fire ! ” 

At the same moment Arrowhead kicked 
the logs of the fire, and a bright flame leapt 
13 * 


150 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


up, showing that the owner of the pair of eyes 
was an Indian. Seeing that he was discover- 
ed, and that if he turned to run he would 
certainly he shot, the savage came forward 
sulkily and sat down beside the fire. Jasper 
asked him why he came there in that stealthy 
manner like a sly fox. The Indian said he 
was merely travelling by night, and had come 
on the camp unexpectedly. Hot knowing 
who was there, he had come forward with 
caution. 

Jasper was not satisfied with this reply. 
He did not like the look of the man, and he 
felt sure that he had seen him somewhere 
before, but his face was disfigured with war- 
paint, and he could not feel certain on that 
point until he remembered the scene in the 
trading store at Jasper’s House. 

“ What — Darkeye ! ” cried he, “ can it be 
you ? ” 

“ Darkeye ! ” shouted Laroche, suddenly 
rising from his reclining position and staring 
the Indian in the face with a dark scowl. 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


151 


“ Why, Jasper, tliis is the villain who insult- 
ed my daughter, and to whom I taught the 
lesson that an old man could knock him 
down.” 

The surprise and indignation of Jasper 
on hearing this was great, hut remembering 
that the savage had already been punished 
for his offence, and that it would be mean 
to take advantage of him when there were 
three to one, he merely said — “Well, well, 
I won’t bear a grudge against a man who is 
coward enough to insult a woman. I would 
kick you out o’ the camp, Darkey e, but as you 
might use your gun when you got out into 
the bushes, I won’t give you that chance. 
At the same time we can’t afford to lose the 
rest of our nap for you, so Arrowhead will 
keep you safe here and watch you, while 
Laroche and I sleep. We will let you go at 
daybreak.” 

Saying this Jasper lay down beside his 
father-in-law, and they were both asleep in a 
few minutes, leaving the two Indians to sit 
and scowl at each other beside the fire. 


CHAPTER Xn. 


THE WEDDING, AN ARRIVAL, A FEAST, 
AND A BALL. 

Hew Year’s Day came at last, and on 
the morning of that day Jasper Derry and 
Marie Laroche were made man and wife. 
They were married by the Rev. Mr. Wilson, 
a Wesleyan missionary, who had come to 
Fort Erie a few days before, on a visit to 
the tribes of Indians in that neighbour- 
hood. 

The Xorth American Indian has no 
religion worthy of the name ; but he has a 
conscience, like other men, which tells him 
that it is wrong to murder and to steal. 
Yet, although he knows this, he seldom hesi- 
tates to do both when he is tempted thereto. 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


153 


Mr. Wilson was one of those earnest mis- 
sionaries who go to that wilderness and face 
its dangers, as well as its hardships and 
sufferings, for the sake of teaching the savage 
that the mere knowledge of right and wrong 
is not enough — that the love of God, wrought 
in the heart of man by the Holy Spirit, alone 
can enable him to resist evil and do good — 
that belief in the Lord Jesus Christ alone 
can save the soul. 

There are several missionaries of this 
stamp — men who love the name of Jesus — in 
that region, and there are a number of sta- 
tions, where the good seed of God’s Word is 
being planted in the wilderness. But I have 
not space, and this is not the place, to en- 
large on the great and interesting subject of 
missionary work in Rupert’s Land. I must 
return to my narrative. 

It was, as I have said, Hew Year’s Day 
when Jasper and Marie were married. And 
a remarkably bright, beautiful morning it 
was. The snow appeared whiter than usual, 


154 


AWAY m THE WILDEKNESS. 


and the countless gems of hoar-frost that 
hung on shrub and tree seemed to sparkle 
more than usual ; even the sun appeared to 
shine more brightly than ever it did before 
— at least it seemed so in the eyes of Jasper 
and Marie. 

“ Everything seems to smile on us 
to-day, Marie,” said Jasper, as they stood 
with some of their friends at the gate of 
the fort, just after the ceremony con- 
cluded. 

“ I trust that God may smile on you, and 
bless your union, my friends,” said Mr. Wil- 
son, coming forward with a small Bible 
in his hand. “Here is a copy of God’s 
Word, Jasper, which I wish you to accept 
of and keep as a remembrance of me and of 
this day.” 

“I’ll keep it, sir, and I thank you 
heartily,” said J asper, taking the book 
and returning the grasp of the missionary’s 
hand. 

“ And my chief object in giving it to 


AWAY IN THE WILDEKNESS. 


155 


you, Jasper, is, that you and Marie may 
read it often, and find joy and peace to your 
souls.” 

As the missionary said this a faint sound, 
like the tinkling of distant hells, was heard 
in the frosty air. 

Looks of surprise and excitement showed 
that this was an unwonted sound. And so 
it was ; for only once or twice during the 
long winter did a visitor gladden Fort Erie 
with his presence. These sweet sounds were 
the tinkling of sleigh-bells, and they told 
that a stranger was approaching — that let- 
ters, perhaps, and news from far-distant 
homes, might be near at hand. 

Only twice in the year did the Europeans 
at that lonely outpost receive letters from 
home. Little wonder that they longed for 
them, and that they went almost wild with 
joy when they came. 

Soon the sleigh appeared in sight, com- 
ing up the river at full speed, and a loud 
“ hurrah ! ” from the men at the gate, told 


156 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


the visitor that he was a welcome guest. It 
was a dog-sleigh — a sort of conveyance much 
used by the fur-traders in winter-travelling. 
In form, it was as like as possible to a tin 
slipper-bath. It might also be compared to 
a shoe. If the reader will try to conceive of 
a shoe large enough to hold a man, sitting 
with his leg3 out before him, that will give 
him a good idea of the shape of a dog cariole. 
There is sometimes an ornamental curve in 
front. It is made of two thin hardwood 
planks curled up in front, with a light frame- 
work of wood, covered over with deer or 
buffalo skin, and painted in a very gay man- 
ner. Four dogs are usually harnessed to it, 
and these are quite sufficient to drag a man 
on a journey of many days, over every sort 
of country, where there is no road whatever. 
Dogs are much used for hauling little sledges 
in that country in winter. The traveller 
sits wrapped up so completely in furs, that 
nothing but his head is visible. He is 
attended by a driver on snow-shoes, who is 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


157 


armed with a large whip. Ho reins are used. 
If the snow is hard, as is usually the case on 
the surface of a lake or river, the driver 
walks behind and holds on to a tail-line, to 
prevent the dogs from running away. If 
the traveller’s way lies through the woods, 
the snow is so soft and deep that the poor 
dogs are neither willing nor able to run away. 
It is as much as they can do to walk ; so the 
driver goes before them, in this case, and 
beats down the snow with his snow-shoes — 
u beats the track,” as it is called. The har- 
ness of the dogs is usually very gay, and 
covered with little bells which give forth a 
cheerful tinkling sound. 

“ It’s young Cameron,” cried Mr. Pem- 
berton, hastening forward to welcome the new 
comer. 

Cameron was the gentleman in charge of 
the nearest outpost — two hundred and fifty 
miles down the river. 

“Welcome, Cameron, my boy, welcome 
to Port Erie. You are the pleasantest sight 
14 


158 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


we have seen here for many a day,” said 
Pemberton, shaking the yonng man heartily 
by the hand as soon as he had jumped out of 
his sleigh. 

“ Come, Pemberton, you forget Miss 
Marie Laroche when you talk of my be- 
ing the pleasantest sight,” said Cameron, 
laughing. 

“ Ah ! true. Pardon me, Marie — ” 

“ Excuse me, gentlemen,” interruped Jas- 
per, with much gravity, “ I know of no such 
person as Miss Marie Laroche ! ” 

“ How ? what do you mean ? ” said Came- 
ron, with a puzzled look. 

“Jasper is right,” explained Pemberton, 
“ Marie was Miss Laroche yesterday ; she is 
Mrs. Derry to-day.” 

“ Then I salute you Mrs. Derry, and con- 
gratulate you both,” cried the young man, 
kissing the bride’s fair cheek, “ and I rejoice 
to find that I am still in time to dance at 
your wedding.” 

“ Ay,” said Pemberton, as they moved 


AWAY m THE WILDERNESS. 


159 


up to the hall, “ that reminds me to ask you 
why you are so late. I expected you before 
Christmas Day.” 

“ I had intended to be here by that day,” 
replied Cameron, “ but one of my men cut 
his foot badly with an axe, and I could not 
leave him ; then my dogs broke down on the 
journey, and that detained me still longer. 
But you will forgive my being so late, I think, 
when I, tell you that I have got a packet of 
letters with me.” 

“ Letters ! ” shouted every one. 

“ Ay, letters and newspapers from Eng- 
land.” 

A loud cheer greeted this announce- 
ment. The packet was hauled out of the 
sleigh, hurried up to the fort, torn open with 
eager haste, and the fur-traders of Fort Erie 
were soon devouring the contents like hun- 
gry men. 

And they were hungry men — they were 
starving ! Those who see their kindred and 
friends daily, or hear from them weekly, 


160 


AWAY m THE WILDERNESS. 


cannot understand the feelings of men who 
hear from them only twice in the year. 
Great improvements have taken place in 
this matter of late years ; still, many of the 
Hudson Bay Company’s outposts are so dis- 
tant from the civilized world, that they 
cannot get news from “ home ” oftener than 
twice a year. 

It was a sight to study and moralize 
over — the countenances of these banished 
men. The trembling anxiety lest there 
should be “ bad news.” The gleam of joy, 
and the deep “ thank God,” on reading “ all 
well.” Then the smiles, the sighs, the laughs, 
the exclamations of surprise, perhaps the tears 
that would spring to their eyes as they read 
the brief but, to them, thrilling private his- 
tory of the past half year. 

There was no bad news in that packet, 
and a feeling of deep joy was poured into 
the hearts of the people of the fort by these 
“ good news from a far country.” Even the 
half-breeds and Indians, who could not share 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


161 


the feeling, felt the sweet influence of the 
general happiness that was diffused among 
the fur-traders on that bright New Year’s 
Day in the wilderness. 

What a dinner they had that day to be 
sure ! What juicy roasts of buffalo beef ; 
what enormous steaks of the same; what 
a magnificent venison pasty; and what 
glorious marrow-bones — not to mention 
tongues, and hearts, and grouse, and other 
things ! But the great feature of the feast 
was the plum-pudding. It was like a huge 
cannon-ball with the measles ! There was 
wine, too, on this occasion. N ot much, it 
is true, but more than enough, for it had 
been saved up all the year expressly for the 
Christmas and New Year’s festivities. Thus 
they were enabled to drink to absent friends, 
and bring up all the old toasts and songs 
that used to be so familiar long ago in the 
“old country.” But these sturdy traders 
needed no stimulants. There were one or 
two who even scorned the wine, and stuck 
14 * 


162 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


to water, and to tlieir credit be it said, 
that they toasted and sang with the best of 
them. 

At night there was a ball, and the ball 
beat the dinner out of sight. Few indeed 
were the women, bnt numerous were the 
men. Indian women are not famous for 
grace or cleanliness, poor things. But they 
enjoyed the ball, and they did their best to 
dance. Such dancing ! They seemed to 
have no joints. They stood up stiff as lamp- 
posts, and went with an up-and-down motion 
from side to side. But the men did the 
thing bravely, especially the Indians. The 
only dances attempted were Scotch reels, 
and the Indians tried to copy the fur-trad- 
ers ; but on finding this somewhat difficult, 
they introduced some surprising steps of 
their own, which threw the others entirely 
into the shade! There was unfortunately 
no fiddler, but there was a fiddle — one made 
of pine wood by an Indian, with strings of 
deer-skin sinew. Some of the boldest of the 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS 


163 


party scraped time without regard to tune, 
and our friend Heywood beat the kettle- 
drum. The tones of the fiddle at last be- 
came so horrible, that it was banished alto- 
gether, and they danced that night to the 
kettle-drum ! 

Of course the fair bride was the queen of 
that ball. Her countenance was the light 
of it, and her modest, womanly manner had 
a softening influence on the rough men who 
surrounded her. 

When the ball was over, a curious thing 
occurred in the hall in which it had taken 
place. The room was heated by a stove, 
and as a stove dries the air of a room too 
much, it was customary to keep a pan of 
water on the stove to moisten it a little. 
This moisture was increased that night by 
the steam of the supper and by the wild 
dancing, so that, when all was over, the 
walls and ceiling were covered with drops 
of water. During the night this all froze in 
the form of small beautifully-shaped crystals, 


164 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


and in the morning they found themselves 
in a crystal palace of nature’s own formation, 
which beat all the crystal palaces that ever 
were heard of — at least in originality, if not 
in splendour. 

Thus happily ended the marriage-day of 
honest Jasper Derry and sweet Marie La- 
roche, and thus pleasantly began the new 
year of 18 — . But, as surely as darkness 
follows light, and night follows day, so sure- 
ly does sorrow tread on the heels of joy in 
the history of man. God has so ordained 
it, and he is wise who counts upon experi- 
encing both. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


THE CONCLUSION. 

A week after the events narrated in the 
last chapter, Jasper Derry was sitting beside 
the stove in the hall at Fort Erie, smoking 
his pipe, and conversing with his father- 
in-law about his intention of going to Lake 
Winnipeg with the brigade in spring, and 
proceeding thence to Canada in a bark 
canoe. 

“ Of course,” said he, “ I will take Marie 
with me, and if you’ll take my advice, father, 
you’ll come too.” 

“ No, my son, not yet a while,” said old 
Laroche, shaking his head ; “ I have a year 
yet to serve the Company before my en- 


166 


AWAY m THE WILDERNESS. 


gagement is out. After that I may come, 
if I’m spared ; but you know that the In- 
dians are not safe just now, and some of 
them, I fear, hear me a grudge, for they’re a 
revengeful set.” 

“ That’s true, father, but supposin’ that 
all goes well with you, will ye come an’ live 
with Marie and me ? ” 

“We shall see, lad; we shall see,” re- 
plied Laroche, with a pleased smile ; for the 
old guide evidently enjoyed the prospect of 
spending the evening of life in the land of 
his fathers, and under the roof-tree of his son 
and daughter. 

At that moment the report of a gun was 
heard outside the house. One of the win- 
dow panes was smashed, and at the same 
instant Laroche fell heavily forward on the 
floor. 

Jasper sprang up and endeavoured to 
raise him, but found that he was insensible. 
He laid him carefully on his back, and 
hastily opened the breast of his coat. A 


AWAY m THE WILDERNESS. 


167 


few drops of blood showed where he had 
been wounded. Meanwhile several of the 
men who had been attracted by the gun- 
shot so close to the house burst into the 
room. 

“ Stand back, stand back, give him air,” 
cried Jasper ; “ stay, O God help us ! the 
old man is shot clean through the heart ! ” 

For one moment Jasper looked up with 
a bewildered glance in the faces of the men, 
then, uttering a wild cry of mingled rage 
and agony, he sprang up, dashed them aside, 
and catching up his gun and snow-shoes 
rushed out of the house. 

He soon found a fresh track in the snow, 
and the length of the stride, coupled with 
the manner in which the snow was cast 
aside, and the smaller bushes were broken 
and trodden down, told him that the fugitive 
had made it. In a moment he was follow- 
ing the track with the utmost speed of which 
he was capable. He never once halted, or 
faltered, or turned aside, all that day. His 


168 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


iron frame seemed to be incapable of fatigue. 
He went with bis body bent forward, bis 
brows lowering, and bis lips firmly com- 
pressed ; but be was not successful. Tbe 
murderer bad got a sufficiently long start of 
bim to render wbat sailors call a stern cbase 
a long one. Still Jasper never thought of 
giving up tbe pursuit, until be came suddenly 
on an open space, where tbe snow bad been 
recently trodden down by a herd of buffaloes, 
and by a band of Indians who were in cbase 
of them. 

Here be lost tbe track, and although be 
searched long and carefully be could not 
find it. Late that night tbe baffled hunter 
returned to tbe fort. 

“ You have failed — I see by your look,” 
said Mr. Pemberton, as Jasper entered. 

“ Ay, I have failed,” returned tbe other 
gloomily. “ He must have gone with tbe 
band of Indians among whose tracks I lost 
bis footsteps.” 

“ Have you any idea who can have done 
this horrible deed ? ” said Pemberton. 


AWAY IK THE WILDERNESS. 


169 


“ It was Darkeye,” said Jasper in a stern 
voice. 

Some of the Indians who chanced to he 
in the hall were startled, and rose on hear- 
ing this. 

“ Be not alarmed, friends,” said the fur- 
trader. “ You are the guests of Christian 
men. We will not punish you for the deeds 
of another man of your tribe.” 

“How does the white man know that 
this was done by Darkeye ? ” asked a chief, 
haughtily. 

“ I know it,” said Jasper, angrily ; “ I feel 
sure of it ; but I cannot prove it — of course. 
Does Arrowhead agree with me ? ” 

“ He does ! ” replied the Indian, “ and 
there may be proof. Does Jasper remember 
the trading store and the bitten bullet ? ” 

A gleam of intelligence shot across the 
countenance of the white hunter as his com- 
rade said this. “ True, Arrowhead, true.” 

He turned, as he spoke, to the body of 
his late father-in-law, and examined the 
15 


170 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


wound. The ball, after passing through the 
heart, had lodged in the back, just under the 
skin. 

“ See,” said he to the Indians, “ I will 
cut out this ball, but before doing so I will 
tell how I think it is marked.” 

He then related the incident in the trading 
store, with which the reader is already ac- 
quainted, and afterwards extracted the ball, 
which, although much flattened and knocked 
out of shape, showed clearly the deep marks 
made by the Indian’s teeth. Thus, the act 
which had been done slyly but boastfully 
before the eyes of a comrade, probably as 
wicked as himself, became the means where- 
by Darkeye’s guilt was clearly proved. 

At once a party of his own tribe were di- 
rected by their chief to go out in pursuit of 
the murderer. 

It were vain for me to endeavour to de- 
scribe the anguish of poor Marie on being 
deprived of a kind and loving father in so 
awful and sudden a manner. I will drop a 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 171 

veil over her grief, which was too deep and 
sacred to be intermeddled with. 

On the day following the murder, a band 
of Indians arrived at Fort Erie with buffalo 
skins for sale. To the amazement of every 
one Darkeye himself was among them. The 
wily savage — knowing that his attempting 
to quit that part of the country as a fugitive 
would be certain to fix suspicion on him as 
the murderer — resolved to face the fur-traders 
as if he were ignorant of the deed which had 
been done. By the very boldness of this step 
he hoped to disarm suspicion ; but he forgot 
the bitten ball. 

It was therefore a look of genuine sur- 
prise that rose to Darkeye’s visage, when, the 
moment he entered the fort, Mr. Pemberton 
seized him by the right arm, and led him 
into the hall. 

At first he attempted to seize the handle 
of his knife, but a glance at the numbers of 
the white men* and the indifference of his 
own friends, showed him that his best chance 
lay in cunning. 


172 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


The Indians who had arrived with him 
were soon informed by the others of the canse 
of this, and all of them crowded into the hall 
to watch the proceedings. The body of poor 
Laroche was laid on a table, and Darkeye 
was led np to it. The cnnning Indian put 
on a pretended look of surprise on beholding 
it, and then the usual expression of stolid 
gravity settled on his face as he turned to 
Mr. Pemberton for information. 

“ Your hand did this,” said the fur- 
trader. 

“ Is Darkeye a dog that he should slay 
an old man ? ” said the savage. 

“No, you’re not a dog,” cried Jasper 
fiercely, “ you are worse — a cowardly mur- 
derer ! ” 

“Stand back, Jasper,” said Mr. Pem- 
erton, laying his hand on the shoulder of 
the excited hunter, and thrusting him firmly 
away. “ This is a serious charge. The In- 
dian shall not be hastily condemned. He 
shall have fair play, and justice? 


AWAY m THE WILDERNESS. 173 

“ Good ! ” cried several of the Indians on 
hearing this. Meanwhile the principal chief 
of the tribe took np his stand close beside 
the prisoner. 

“ Darkeye,” said Mr. Pemberton, while 
he looked steadfastly into the eyes of the In- 
dian, who returned the look as steadily — 
“ Darkeye, do you remember a conversation 
you had many weeks ago in the trading store 
at Jasper’s House? ” 

The countenance of the Indian was 
instantly troubled, and he said with some 
hesitation, “ Darkeye has had many conver- 
sations in that store ; is he a medicine-man * 
that he should know what you mean ? ” 

“I will only put one other question,” 
said the fur-trader. “ Do you know this 
bullet with the marks of teeth in it ? ” 

Darkeye’s visage fell at once. He be- 
came deadly pale, and his limbs trembled. 
He was about to speak, when the chief, who 
had hitherto stood in silence at his side, 

* A conjurer. 


15 * 


174 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


suddenly whirled his tomahawk in the air, 
and, bringing it down on the murderer’s 
skull, cleft him to the chin ! 

A fierce yell followed this act, and 
several scalping knives reached the dead 
man’s heart before his body fell to the 
ground. The scene that followed was terri- 
ble. The savages were roused to a state of 
frenzy, and for a moment the white men 
feared an attack, hut the anger of the In- 
dians was altogether directed against their 
dead comrade, who had been disliked by his 
people, while his poor victim Laroche had 
been a universal favourite. Seizing the 
body of Darkeye, they carried it down to 
the banks of the river, hooting and yelling 
as they went ; hacked and cut it nearly to 
pieces, and then, kindling a large fire, they 
threw the mangled corpse into it, and burned 
it to ashes. 

It was long before the shadow of this 
dark cloud passed away from Fort Erie ; and 
it was longer still before poor Marie recov- 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


175 


ered lier wonted cheerfulness. But the pres- 
ence of Mr. Wilson did much to comfort her. 
Gradually time softened the pang and healed 
the wound. 

* * *:<* * * 

And now, little remains to he told. 
Winter passed away and spring came, and 
when the rivers and lakes were sufficiently 
free from ice, the brigade of boats left Fort 
Erie, laden with furs, for the sea-coast. 

On arriving at Lake Winnipeg, Jasper 
obtained a small canoe, and, placing his wife 
and Heywood in the middle of it, he and 
Arrowhead took the paddles, seated them- 
selves in the how and stem, and guided their 
frail bark through many hundreds of miles 
of wilderness — over many a rough portage, 
across many a beautiful lake, and up many 
a roaring torrent, until, finally, they arrived 
in Canada. 

Here Jasper settled. His farm prospered 
— his family increased. Sturdy boys, in 
course of time, ploughed the land, and bloom- 


176 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


ing daughters tended the dairy. Yet Jas- 
per Derry did not cease to toil. He was 
one of those men who feel that they were 
made to work, and that much happiness 
flows from working. He often used to say 
that if it was God’s will, he would “ like to 
die in harness.” 

Jasper’s only weakness was the pipe. It 
stuck to him and he stuck to it to the last. 
Marie, in course of time, came to tolerate 
it, and regularly filled it for him every 
night. 

Evening was the time when the inmates 
of Erie Cottage (as their residence was 
named) enjoyed themselves most ; for it was 
then that the stalwart sons and the blooming 
daughters circled round the great fire of 
wood that roared, on winter nights, up the 
chimney; and it was then that Jasper re- 
ceived his pipe from his still good-looking, 
though rather stout, Marie, and began to 
spin yarns about his young days. At this 
time, too, it was, that the door would fre- 


AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 


177 


quently open, and a rugged old Indian 
would stalk in like a mahogany gliost, and 
squat down in front of the fire. He was 
often followed by a tall thin old gentleman, 
who was extremely excitable, but good hu- 
moured. Jasper greeted these two remarka- 
ble looking men by the names of Arrowhead 
and Heywood. 

And glad were the young people when 
they saw their wrinkled faces, for then, they 
knew from experience, their old father would 
become more lively than usual, and would 
go on for hours talking of all the wonders 
and dangers that he had seen and encoun- 
tered long, long ago, when he and his two 
friends were away in the wilderness. 


THE END. 


IN COURSE OF PUBLICATION. 


1. FIGHTING THE WHALES ; or, Doings and 

Dangers on a Fishing Cruise. 

2. AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS ; or, Life 

among the Red Indians and Fur-traders of 
North America. 

3. FAST IN THE ICE ; or, Adventures in the 

Polar Regions. 

4. CHASING THE STJN ; or, Rambles in Norway. 

5. UP IN THE CLOUDS ; or, Balloon Voyages. 

6. LOST IN THE FOREST ; or, Adventures in 

Brazil. 

7. DOWN IN THE DEEP; or, The Dangers and 

Wonders of Diving. 

8. OUT UPON THE SEA ; or, The Fights and 

Fancies of a British Tar. 

9. DOWN IN THE MINES ; or, Leaves from the 

Journal of a Collier. 

10. OVER THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS; or, The 

Stronghold of the Savage. 

11. UP THE NILE; or, The Land of Egypt. 


IN COURSE OF PUBLICATION. 


12. DIGGING FOR GOLD ; or, Adventures in 

California. 

13. THE CANNIBAL ISLANDS ; or, Sights and 

Scenes in one of the Dark Places of the Earth. 

14. HUNTING THE LIONS ; or, The Land of the 

Negro. 

15. THE SEA-KING; A Norse Tale of the Olden 

Time. 

ETC. ETC. ETC. 





































































































































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